Some cliche somewhere said that ‘a picture is worth a thousand words.’ This has proven to be the case for me and especially when it comes to fan art. I have always sought out great fan art and have wanted to share it with as many people as possible. “Awesome Art We’ve Found Around The Net” is the outlet for that passion. In this column, I will showcase the kick-ass artwork of some great artists, with the hopes that these artists get the attention they deserve. That’s the aim. If you have any questions or comments, or even suggestions of art or other great artists, feel free to contact me at any time at [email protected].
The Super Mario Bros. Movie will remain the champ for a fourth week in a row as new releases struggle to hit double digits.
In the final week before the official kick off to the summer movie season, we have a smorgasbord of films that appeal to movie fans of all different backgrounds. Coming in first place for the fourth week is The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which is currently looking at an estimated $30 million, of course anyone that has followed this behemoth of a movie knows that the estimates that come in on early Saturday are generally blown away by the end of the day as families head to theaters in droves on the weekend. Right now the film stands at a little over $450 million domestic which puts it in fourth place on the all time domestic animated charts, but by the end of the weekend it is very possible the film moves up to the number two spot surpassing the $486.2 million taken in by 2016’s Finding Dory. It still has a ways to go before it can take down the all time animated leader at the domestic box office with Incredibles 2’s take of $608.5 million, but anything is possible.
Of the new releases, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret looks to be having the best weekend with what is predicted, for now, to be a $6 million opening. Definitely not the $15 million I was expecting based off of last years comparable opening of Where The Crawdads Sing which was also based on a beloved novel. That film had great word of mouth and remained in the top ten for seven weeks. With week after week of big movies coming up, I am not sure Margaret will have that same longevity, even with solid reviews including an 8/10 from our own JimmyO and an impressive 99% on Rotten Tomatoes.
We do have a potential surprise brewing as the Finnish ultra violent World War II tale Sisu took in $585,000 in Thursday previews, that is just $15,000 less than Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. Right now, Sisu is still only expected to do around $5 million for the weekend, but that is only because it has a limited release of 900 screens, but with great reviews including a rare 10/10 from our own Alex Maidy, combined with a 93% critical score and 90% audience score, it is possible this lean hour and thirty one minute R rated tale can have some legs at the box office.
It looks like there is a fight between three heavyweights this weekend as Sisu, Big George Foreman or Big George Foreman: The Miraculous Story of the Once and Future Heavyweight Champion of the World, as that appears to be its official title and the 40th anniversary re-release of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi are in a dead heat with all expected to do around $5 million this weekend. It seems audiences were more enamored with a fictional boxer’s story than a real one as fellow boxing film Creed III saw a $58.3 million opening just a few months ago. Films that have a faith based angle to them but try to break out to a wider audience, such as this one and 2021’s American Underdog tend to under-perform as opposed to films such as Jesus Revolution that market directly to that base. But I do believe that the story of George Foreman is one that should be seen as he is a truly inspirational and legendary figure in American sports. Sadly critics don’t seem to be enjoying this film as they are calling it a conventional and formulaic sports biopic, however paying audiences have given the film a strong 96% audience score.
The remainder of the charts look to be your holdovers such as Evil Dead Rise that is looking to drop the horror movie standard 60% with an estimated $10 million second weekend while John Wick: Chapter 4 officially becomes the highest grossing John Wick film stateside with $171.5 million taken in since its release while Air and Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant look to have small drop offs.
Have you been to the theaters yet this week or is it still on your list of things to do? Let us know in the comments and don’t forget to check back in with us tomorrow as we have a full rundown on this Weeknd’s box office numbers.
There are very few comic-book movies that have gone through the development hell that The Flash has gone through over the past decade, but it seems as though fans will finally get to see their favorite scarlet speedster get his own standalone film. With the DC adaptation set to premiere in June, as well as two trailers being dropped with massive implications about what the movie will hold for DC’s future, it’s safe to say that fans are already counting down the minutes until they can race to the theaters to see it.
All of that being said, there is a huge question mark looming over the superhero movie that unfortunately won’t be answered for seemingly years to come. James Gunn, the new co-CEO of DC Studios and the man at the helm of the new DCU, stated back in January that The Flash will be “resetting” the current Snyderverse of the DCEU and will be moving forward with plans of a fresh reboot for the entire DC franchise. While critics of the DCEU (which has now been around for a decade) were excited to hear about Gunn taking over for the studio, it left a lot of pondering from fans about what it would mean for some of the actors and actresses currently occupying the roles of DC’s heroes and villains.
So, with the news from Gunn that The Flash will be resetting the entire DCU and allow the studio to move forward with Gunn’s plans for the future, the question looming over the superhero movie is thus – how exactly will the movie reset the entirety of the DCU?
Flashpoint Comic Concept
While the details haven’t been revealed to the public, it was announced long ago that The Flash movie would be loosely following the same story arc as the Flashpoint comic-book series. Now, a large portion of movie-goers are also comic-book fans and know what happens during said arc, but there are some audience members who aren’t as familiar with the comic-book storylines as others.
Essentially, the Flashpoint comic centers around the concept that Barry Allen wakes up in a universe that is vastly different from his own – a world where Cyborg is the main protector of Earth instead of Superman, Bruce Wayne was killed instead of his parents which resulted in Thomas Wayne becoming Batman and Martha Wayne becoming Joker, the world is being destroyed due to a war between the Atlanteans and the Amazonians, and Barry’s mother is alive while he himself has no super speed. It’s revealed throughout the story that this alternate universe is a result of Barry traveling back in time in order to prevent the murder of his mother, which then causes drastic ripple effects in the future.
Now, as stated, The Flash movie is set to follow this same story-arc loosely with Barry Allen traveling back in time to prevent the murder of his mother, which then causes catastrophic changes to the current DCEU timeline. This will then allow the studio to ‘reset’ the DC film and tv universe and move forward with James Gunn’s plans for the future.
Possible Cameos
With Barry Allen traveling back in time and changing the events of his current timeline, that’s why characters such as Michael Keaton and Ben Affleck’s Batman will be appearing in the film, as well as Sasha Calle’s new version of Supergirl. It’s also why the possibilities are nearly limitless with what the studio and director, Andres Muschietti, could do in terms of cameos for the film – and as it turns out, they thought so as well.
The director revealed in a recent interview that the film originally had a long list of cameos in mind that included Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman, Marlon Brando as Jor-El, Grant Gustin as his television version of The Flash, and Cesar Romero and Burgess Meredith as Joker and Penguin. It should also be noted that a character who ends up playing a large part in the Flashpoint comic-book story-arc is Dr. Manhattan – a character that has already been portrayed on the screen in DC’s Watchmen movie as well as HBO’s Watchmen series.
Unfortunately, the director also revealed that the original unedited version of the movie was 4 hours long and that a significant number of cameos they had planned had to be cut. That said, reports indicate that there are still multiple surprise cameos planned for the movie and audiences shouldn’t have to worry about the fan appeal.
Upcoming DC Projects
So, since The Flash will be reseting the DCU, what exactly does that mean for the projects that DC has slated for the near future? Well, as it turns out, The Flash will luckily be giving DC a little wiggle room in that regard. Gunn announced in an interview back in February that the scarlet speedster movie won’t be a complete reboot of the DCEU, but rather a fluid reset. His exact words were, “(The) Flash resets many things, not all things. Some characters remain the same, some do not.”
This is why/how Amanda Waller was a part of the prior DCEU over the last several years, yet how she’ll be remaining with the new DCU under the helm of James Gunn. In short, Gunn more or less made it clear that characters from prior DC projects will still technically be eligible to appear in future DCU projects due to the inclusion of the multiverse concept in The Flash. So, what that means for upcoming DC projects like Blue Beetle and Aquaman is that they could still ultimately work their way into the new DCU, seemingly based off of fan appeal and sequel potential.
However, it could also mean that while The Flash is set to feature several cameos from prior DC characters, we could also be getting glimpses of future DC characters that the studio has planned for one of their slated projects. After all, Supergirl is appearing in the movie and her stand-alone film is one of Gunn’s planned DCU projects. Perhaps a cameo from a new Superman, Batman, Robin, Green Lantern, or even Swamp Thing wouldn’t be out of the question.
Conclusion
What does all of this information truly mean in terms of how the DCU will change? It means that while the media has portrayed Gunn’s plans as a full reboot, The Flash will ultimately be a proper ‘love letter’ to DC fans and projects of the past while establishing a firm foundation for all of their future plans. In essence, The Flash will be the film that allows DC the ultimate amount of wiggle room in terms of creative freedom moving forward, while still servicing the fans with a project that makes sense in terms of a continuous timeline.
A proper way to look at the situation, and the DCU moving forward, is almost exactly how the Flashpoint comic altered the DC comic-book landscape. The conclusion of the Flashpoint story-arc saw Barry merge with a version of himself that resulted in 3 different DC timelines (“New Earth” of DC proper, Vertigo universe in Earth-13, WildStorm universe of Earth-50) combining to form a brand new universe known as The New 52, allowing the remnants of the three universes to coexist with each other.
Looking at it from that perspective, The Flash will reset the DCU in the sense that it won’t ignore that the SnyderVerse ever existed, nor any of the other prior DC films and television shows. Instead, it will act as if each prior DC project were its own universe in the DC multiverse and will allow said universes to coexist among each other. In this way, The Flash‘s reset should be honoring DC’s past while preparing for their future – a very welcome change for DC fans.
The Sundance midnight entry, Polite Society, is a crowd pleasing action-comedy, with two very likeable leads.
Polite Society was previously reviewed at Sundance 2023.
PLOT: A young woman (Priya Kansara) studying martial arts becomes convinced something nefarious is afoot when her formally rebellious sister (Ritu Arya) agrees to a marriage arranged by her Pakistani family.
REVIEW:Polite Society is rare for Sundance these days – a crowd-pleasing action comedy. Everything Everywhere All At Once proved there’s a hunger for variations on the genre. Polite Society mixes your classic culture-clash coming-of-age tale (shades of Bend it Like Beckham or Blinded by the Light) with the type of light action comedy the directors in Hong Kong used to turn out regularly. Polite Society is a fun-filled actioner for all ages, featuring wire-fu and a whole bunch of fight scenes.
It helps that director Nida Manzoor (We Are Lady Parts) brings specificity to Polite Society with her being born into a Pakistani Muslim family while living in London, just like the leads. Her heroine, Priya Kansara’s Ria Khan, comes from a relatively open-minded family. She’s a devoted martial artist who wants to become a stuntwoman, and her sister, a martial artist herself, is a rebellious art school dropout. Naturally, all of this makes her decision to agree to an arranged marriage suspicious. Still, the film does a good job showing why the sister, played by an excellent Ritu Arya, would agree to the match. She’s shown going on several dates with the match, a rich, handsome, and kind doctor. Ria probably wouldn’t have an issue with the marriage were it not for the fact that her beloved sister will be moving with him to Singapore and has no interest in working as an artist anymore.
For much of Polite Society, Ria’s quest to break up the relationship feels misguided or even monstrous, with the only apparent red herring being the groom’s wildly overbearing mother, played by Pakistani actress Nimra Bucha, who wants the marriage to happen. This is where the film almost goes wrong, as Manzoor comes close to making Ria insufferably self-righteous, only to reveal there’s some merit to her worries in the second half. Here is where PoliteSociety detours into martial arts mayhem, with lots of flashy, fun fights, done more in the Scott Pilgrim mode than the HK-approved Everything Everywhere All At Once. There’s also a heavy dose of Bollywood thrown in, with a terrific musical number midway through the movie and some really well-done costumes and production design.
It all works well due to Manzoor’s light touch and flair for pace (although the first twenty minutes or so were uneven), while Kansara and Arya are terrific as the two sisters at the center of the movie. Kansara, in particular, seems like a star in the making, with this a good showcase for her comedic and action chops. Some will complain that the fights aren’t elaborate or hard-hitting enough, but it’s better to think of Polite Society as a teen movie first and everything else second. I could imagine this film gaining a big following among young female martial arts fans, with a whole new generation of them seemingly being born thanks to the success of Cobra Kai. Polite Society feels like a natural evolution of the genre to encompass other genres, and if this leads to an influx of coming-of-age martial arts movies, sign me up.
Beau Is Afraid actor Armen Nahapetian has made the announcement that he is indeed not a work of artificial intelligence.
Beau may be afraid, but actor Armen Nahapetian is more concerned that you think he is a work of artificial intelligence. The Beau Is Afraid co-star, who plays the teenage version of Joaquin Phoenix’s character, recently updated his Instagram profile bio to read, “I’m not AI”…which most actors generally don’t have to explain.
Yet, Armen Nahapetian has been the subject of just that, facing accusations that he’s actually a digitally created entity and not flesh, bones and DNA, telling Variety that the Instagram update is “half joking, but half being serious…I thought people would eventually realize that, you know, I’m a real boy.” But this hasn’t been the case even after stepping out for the premiere of Beau Is Afraid, as he has continued to face skepticism. “I went to the movie theater a few weeks ago, and one of the employees was pointing at the poster saying, ‘Oh, my God, you’re real!’” So, would they have made him pay for the ticket with NFTs…?
This questioning of Armen Nahapetian’s identity began long before Beau Is Afraid even came out. Once the bizarre posters hit the internet, people immediately began wondering, What is up with the kid on the poster? Certainly there is a juxtaposition there, with Nahapetian appearing sort of…well, artificial, at least compared to the three Joaquin Phoenix versions also depicted. Indeed, many just assumed it was a digitally de-aged Phoenix. It didn’t help, either, that one poster even had an image of Armen Nahapetian with “JOAQUIN PHOENIX” above. In fairness, Nahapetian does look at least a little bit like a young Joaquin Phoenix in the face (see: 1988’s Parenthood).
Armen Nahapetian’s existence has only added to Beau Is Afraid’s release–after all, it is definitely an epic and trippy movie–with the curiosity translating into respectable box office numbers, with the A24 film taking in $80,000 per screen, which is actually the best average of 2023. So suck on that, computer-generated Mario!
Do you think Armen Nahapetian looks like an A.I. work? Did you think he was a digitally de-aged Joaquin Phoenix? Let us know below!
Transformers producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura says the animated movie will be an Optimus Prime/Megatron origin story on Cybertron.
It’s been five years since the release of the last Transformers movie, but the franchise will be returning to theaters this summer with the release of Transformers: Rise of the Beasts. However, that’s not the only Transformers movie we’ve got in store. There’s also an animated Transformers movie directed by Josh Cooley (Toy Story 4) which will serve as a prequel, and producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura dropped a few new details on the project while speaking with Collider.
Lorenzo di Bonaventura confirmed that the Transformers animated movie will indeed be a prequel set on Cybertron. It will also serve as the origin of Megatron and Optimus Prime, who were friends at this point in time. “This is something we were trying to do; we debated a lot about it in live action, and it just was financially impossible to do, which is, the origin story of young Megatron and young Optimus,” di Bonaventura teased. “If you know the origin, they started as friends, and over time things devolved for them and they ended up on two sides. So we’re telling the young Optimus and the young Megatron story. We really are telling the origin story of all Transformers, both what they were at the beginning of it, to how they grow, to how they grow apart.“
Lorenzo di Bonaventura expressed his hope that the animated Transformers movie will grow into a trilogy. “We’re hoping that there is enough emotional construct to that, that would lead to a trilogy of it because, personally, I think there’s a natural trilogy,” di Bonaventura said. “I’m not always looking to do multiple movies, but there’s a natural trilogy around their relationship. So, you’re going to see Cybertron in a way you’ve never seen it, that no one’s ever seen it before. Because we’re doing an animation, we’re allowed to really go all out. If you tried to make this live-action, it would probably be a billion-dollar movie or something.”
The animated Transformers movie is set to hit theaters on July 19, 2024, but our next dose of the robots in disguise will arrive much sooner than that. Transformers: Rise of the Beasts will take audiences on a ‘90s globetrotting adventure with the Autobots and introduce a whole new faction of Transformer – the Maximals – to the existing battle on earth between Autobots and Decepticons. The film will hit theaters on June 9th.
Legendary action star Scott Adkins interviews his fellow legend, and co-star, Keanu Reeves about his long career. as an action hero.
Here at JoBlo, we’re pretty massive fans of both Scott Adkins and Keanu Reeves. You can watch both men battle it out in John Wick: Chapter 4 right now, and if you haven’t seen it yet, you really are missing out on one of the great modern action flicks. In his downtime, Scott Adkins has his own show on his YouTube channel called The Art of Action, where he sits down with some of the most significant modern action stars and interviews them about their careers. What’s interesting about Adkins’ interviews is that being an action hero in his own right, he knows exactly what a physical challenge these movies can be, so he can go into the nitty-gritty of some of the most complex sequences of their careers. Adkins has interviewed almost every action star of note, and they tend to open up to Adkins in a way they don’t anywhere else. In fact, Adkins can probably claim the world’s best Steven Seagal interview, with him getting the controversial star to open up about his career that no one, from my recollection, ever had before.
To celebrate the release of John Wick: Chapter 4, Adkins has finally sat down with his co-star Keanu Reeves, for an epic two part interview about his career. The first part, which just dropped, features Reeves talking about his earlier action movies, devoting significant time to Point Break, Speed and The Matrix. The interview, which runs 45 minutes, is one of the best Reeves has ever given. Adkins’ DIY show is shot on Zoom, and you really get the sense that it’s two friendly colleagues trading stories. Keanu seems to relish the opportunity to talk seriously about his career as an action hero.
In it, he admits that he was no one’s first choice for Point Break, crediting director Kathryn Bigelow for lobbying the studio on his behalf. He opens up about the complexity of the foot chase and how capable Patrick Swayze was as a skydiver, surfer and fighter. He also talks about how his career in action was nearly hampered by major neck surgery he underwent as he started training for The Matrix and much more. It’s jam-packed with good stories, and Reeves hasn’t even gotten to the sequels or John Wick yet, with Adkins teasing a second episode. The interview is embedded above, and it’s a must-watch, as is literally every episode of Adkins’ series. And while you’re at it, if you haven’t checked out our list of the best Scott Adkins action flicks, have at it! Thanks to Sam Leggett of Team JVS for sharing the interview with us!
Chris Evans and Ana de Armas swap expected roles for a blockbuster action film wrapped in a decent romantic comedy.
Plot: Salt-of-the-earth Cole falls head over heels for enigmatic Sadie — but then makes the shocking discovery that she’s a secret agent. Before they can decide on a second date, Cole and Sadie are swept away on an international adventure to save the world.
Review: Thanks to the blockbuster films of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Chris Evans has become synonymous with Captain America. Through roles in Knives Out and Defending Jacob, Evans has tried to stretch himself beyond the realm of comic books by selecting projects that are nowhere near comparisons to Steve Rogers. With Ghosted, Evans takes on a role that could not be any less like his iconic superhero role while still allowing him to have fun with stunts, spectacle, and a fair amount of comedy. Reuniting with his Knives Out co-star Ana De Armas, Ghosted is a fun yet predictable action movie with solid stuntwork and great cameos that plays with the conventions of romantic comedies while flipping the cliches of the spy genre on its head.
Ghosted clocks in at just about two hours, the first forty-five minutes of which are centered on the romantic comedy elements of the story. Cole Riggan (Chris Evans) lives in his parent’s guest house after returning home to help them work their farm outside of Washington, D.C. when his dad suffered an injury. Working at a farmer’s market selling their crops, Cole meets Sadie (Ana de Armas). The two flirt, disagree, and then spend a fantastic day together, echoing the magic of every meet-cute couple on the big screen. Cole struggles with being too needy and decides to track Sadie down after she doesn’t reply to his dozens of text messages. When Cole arrives in London, he is mistaken for the deadly secret agent known as Taxman and discovers Sadie is actually the CIA agent he has been mistaken for. As their adventure takes them across Europe and Asia and back to Washington, D.C., Cole and Sadie bicker and squabble as they try to stay a step ahead of Leveque (Adrien Brody), who wants the password for a deadly weapon known as Aztec.
What immediately clicks in Ghosted is the chemistry between Evans and de Armas. While Scarlett Johansson was initially set to pair with her MCU co-star, Evans and de Armas work wonderfully together. The gender-swapped approach of having Sadie be the superstar assassin spy while Cole is dumbfounded and clueless is a fun twist, but it also works because Evans never plays his character as helpless. Yes, Cole struggles with relationships, but he can hold his own in a fistfight. His skills are nowhere near a match for Sadie or the henchmen they face, but he never seems completely incapable. What also works is the great dialogue which is both hilarious and genuine thanks to the efforts of writers Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick, Eric Sommers, and Chris McKenna. The writers, all veterans of Marvel projects, spend much time getting us to care about Cole and Sadie as a couple as much as individuals.
It also helps that the bad guys are engaging to watch. Adrien Brody chews the scenery as the mustache-twirling Leveque. More of a middleman than a primary villain, Brody plays Leveque as a one-track baddie who will stop at nothing to get paid. He works with secondary characters like Borislov (Tim Blake Nelson) and his second-in-command Wagner (Mike Moh). Moh, a breakout in Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, gets a strong role here and gets to break out his martial arts skills a couple of times. Leveque sends his mercenaries to hunt down Cole and Sadie, which allows for several stellar action sequences, including an intense chase sequence involving a bus, a mid-air plane fight, and the final fight atop a rotating restaurant along the Potomac River. The movie also includes four significant cameos that are one of the highlights of this film.
Dexter Fletcher, best known for directing Eddie the Eagle, Rocketman, and stepping in for Bryan Singer on Bohemian Rhapsody, shows a solid grasp of action filmmaking. Ghosted pushes the line of PG-13 movies with some of the deaths shown on screen. The movie is mostly bloodless but boasts a fairly high body count and the one allowed f-bomb the rating allows, and it is used perfectly. The budget on this Apple FIlms co-production with Skydance is easily one of the more impressive feature films of the streaming era and could have been a solid theatrical release. There is enough action here to please the blockbuster crowd, the humor works for all audiences, and the romantic stuff never feels forced or too sappy. If I have any complaints, it is that there is too much material stuffed into these two hours, which makes some elements feel unnecessary. From Cole’s family, played by Lizzie Broadway, Amy Sedaris, and Tate Donavan, to CIA agents, played by Mustafa Shakir, Anna Deveare Smith, and Tiya Sircar, everyone aside from the main characters and the villains is given short shrift.
Ghosted coasts on the effortless chemistry between Chris Evans and Ana de Armas, two really good-looking people, and solid actors. The pair’s enthusiasm and fun in making this movie come through in the finished project. Getting to see de Armas be badass and Evans be the arm candy is a fun twist on the conventions of romantic comedies without falling back into the cliche fare that both actors have dealt with before becoming superstars. Ghosted packs a lot into two hours, some of which work and some fall a little short, but it never fails to keep things moving at a breakneck pace. With solid villains, good action, and some classic cameos, Ghosted is a decent couple of hours at the movies.
Joaquin Phoenix doesn’t want people he knows telling him what they thought of his movies…Come to think of it, just don’t see it.
Joaquin Phoenix has been in the movie business for nearly four decades, obviously proving a draw for critics and audiences. And while that helps in a continuously successful career, he specifically doesn’t want his friends seeing his movies. And if you happen to catch one, please don’t tell him you liked it.
Speaking on the A24 podcast about Beau Is Afraid, Joaquin Phoenix said that people are supportive of his movies, but it adds nothing to his emotions. “I’ve had one friend who’s seen the movie, and they texted, ‘I had a blast.’ I don’t know what that is.” He added that he tends to get confrontational on the matter, saying, “If somebody says a compliment about something, my impulse is to say, ‘Name five other performances that you thought are really good, or movies…’ It’s probably best to not interact with your friends when they’ve seen a movie you’ve made. That’s my opinion.”
Joaquin Phoenix even refused to invite any buddies to the premiere of his latest movie, Beau Is Afraid, saying it’s a pathetic move. “It’s also, like, ‘Do you want to come and watch this?’ I just feel so weird…‘Come see the movie?’ No. There’s no good version of this. Whatever the situation, don’t invite ’em…My preference is for people I know not to see anything I’m in just because I don’t want to have to go through that process. That’s the worst thing about going to a screening. Afterwards, people come up, and they have to say something. It’s always uncomfortable.” For what it’s worth, Joaquin, we do feel compelled to say that we gave Beau Is Afraid a 6/10… but we can tell you because we don’t know you!
But chances are many of Joaquin Phoenix’s nearest and dearest will be seeing his next big movie, Joker: Folie à Deux (which wrapped filming earlier this month), which will do insanely well at the box office if its predecessor is any indicator, with 2019’s Joker raking in $355 million domestically and over $1 billion worldwide.
Joaquin Phoenix has made some off-the-wall comments before, but how do you feel about him not wanting friends to see his movies? If you could tell Phoenix one thing (positive or negative) about one of his flicks, what would it be? Let us know!
Studies show hamstring and UCL injuries are most common in opening weeks, and sustained acoustic medicine is effective treatment for those soft-tissue injuries.
TRUMBULL, Conn., April 28, 2023 (Newswire.com)
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Baseball is back, which means balls and strikes, hits and homers - and hamstring injuries. Studies show baseball's most common injury, hamstring tendon tears, is more prevalent in the season's first weeks, as is a common elbow injury. And this spring, both could become more frequent as rule changes reduce players' recovery time between pitches and plays. One way to mitigate the risks of these injuries is ZetrOz Systems' sustained acoustic medicine sam® device, which effectively treats soft-tissue injuries and can help players stay on the diamond.
The ZetrOZ sam® X1 and 2.0 devices are the only FDA-cleared wearable ultrasound units approved for daily home use. The low-intensity, long-duration ultrasound technology expedites the injury healing process without invasive surgery or potentially addictive painkillers and is clinically proven by more than 40 studies to reduce pain and improve function.
"We work with medical professionals nationwide, from orthopedic surgeons to athletic trainers, and they have used sam® to successfully treat thousands of professional and amateur athletes," said Dr. George Lewis, founder and CEO of ZetrOZ Systems. "We know those injuries are more likely to occur at the start of a season, especially in baseball, and our technology can help mitigate risk and improve healing of those injuries."
Several studies document the prevalence of injuries early in a season. A 2019 study in The Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine used six years of Major League Baseball's own injury tracking database to examine trends in hamstring injuries, which it found was the most common injury in baseball.
"In various professional sports leagues (NFL, NBA, MLB), hamstring strains have been found to occur earlier in the season. Our study found similar results, with the highest number of hamstring sprains in April and May," the authors reported. "These factors may have an association with poor conditioning at the start of the season."
About 40 percent of hamstring injuries occur in April and May, the analysis found. The rate of hamstring strains in Major League Baseball increased from one injury every 39 games in 2011 to one in every 30 games in 2016, with a similar trend in minor league baseball.
The pattern was the same in injuries to the elbow's ulnar collateral ligament (UCL), according to a 2021 report from the Journal of Shoulder and Elbow Surgery, with April and May as peak months for UCL injuries. They also found that injuries within the first 90 days of the season were more severe, more commonly requiring surgery to repair them.
"Throwing athletes may have increased risk for an elbow injury at the start of the season because they have not attained midseason levels of muscle strength and endurance," the authors wrote. They also found that pitchers' shoulders had less range of motion early in the season, likely making them more vulnerable to injury.
Some observers fear injuries will be more common this year, with Major League Baseball now using a pitch clock that requires pitchers to throw to the batter within 15 seconds, or 20 seconds with a runner on base. That means pitchers have less recovery time between pitches, and batters have less recovery from swings or from running out foul balls.
A 2016 study in the Journal of Sports Science modeled the effects of the shorter rest period on pitching. The authors found that players would have more fatigue in the forearm muscles that stabilize the elbow, "increasing strain on the ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) and possibly increasing injury risk."
Treatment with ZetrOZ's sam® technology effectively treats injuries to tendons of the leg, elbow and other areas of the body. Among many studies demonstrating the system's efficacy, a 2015 level 4 clinical study by sports medicine experts at The Ohio State University and Duke University found sustained acoustic medicine delivered via ZetrOZ's sam® reduced pain and improved strength in patients' medial/lateral elbow tendons and Achilles' tendons.
Sustained acoustic medicine works by increasing blood vessel diameters to improve blood flow. That increases oxygenated hemoglobin at the site of the therapy and removes cytokine enzymes and cellular waste, with a result of more rapid healing and reduced pain.
"We know from our relationships with trainers across professional and college sports, as well physicians treating recreational athletes, that sam® heals athletes' soft-tissue injuries more rapidly and helps players stay on the field or return to it more quickly," Lewis said. "As baseball season begins and teams adapt to this new environment, sam® is available to help players stay healthy and on the diamond doing what they love."
ZetrOZ Systems' sam® technology was developed in part with funding from the National Institute of Health, National Science Foundation, Department of Defense and NASA. ZetrOZ Systems products are designed and manufactured in the United States and are protected by 46 U.S. patents.
ZetrOZ Systems is leading healing innovations in sports medicine, developing wearable bioelectronic devices for the delivery of sustained acoustic medicine (sam®). Researched and funded by the federal government, ZetrOZ is built on the proprietary medical technology of +46 patents and is the exclusive manufacturer and developer of the sam® product line, which is designed for the treatment of acute and chronic musculoskeletal conditions.
