A few months ago, I watched a trailer for an upcoming film called "Upgrade".  It was dynamite!  I watched the trailer over and over.  Then I watched an endless number of reaction videos of people who were as excited as I was.

Youtube Video

Anyway, when June 1st rolled around, I was surprised to find that the movie wasn't at my local theater.  I thought the movie had gotten pushed back, like "The New Mutants" or "X-Men: Dark Phoenix", but it hadn't.   Eventually, I discovered that the film was indeed out, but in an incredibly limited release.  I would've had to drive over a hundred miles to see it.  I thought that the limited release must've meant that the movie sucks, but Rotten Tomatoes gives it an 86% audience score (?).   Baffled, I figured that I'd just have to wait a while for a wider release, but it never came.  And since the film is scheduled to be released on DVD and Blu-Ray on August 28th, it probably won't get one.
WTF????

It gets weirder:  I went to torrentz to see if I could download it, only to discover an OCEAN of fake Upgrade torrents.  Someone is going through a fuck-load of effort to bury any actual Upgrade torrents, which there seem to be none.   I mean, even on MAJOR studio releases like …..let's say.... "Black Panther", I didn't see ANY effort to fuck with downloaders!  l found one Upgrade torrent that seemed to be legit, but when I tried to play it, the audio track informed me that I would have to go to another site and download a special codec (NO... FUCKING.... WAY!!!).

Does anyone have any information about this film?  Has anyone seen it?  Does their marketing strategy (Widely released trailer for a barely released film) make any sense to anyone?  Is this "codec needed to view film" crap becoming "a thing" now?  Will all pirated movies soon require it?

Finally, another reason I'm so hung up on this fucking movie: If you go to Google and input "Poor man's Tom Hardy", one of the few names that pops up is Logan Marshall Green.  Right after I first heard Logan Marshall Green described as a poor man's Tom Hardy, I first encountered the "Upgrade" trailer.  This made me realize something interesting:

June 1st - "Upgrade" - Logan Marshall Green plays a man whose body is invaded by something that talks to him in his mind, makes him powerful, controls his body, corrupts him, and makes him kill.

Oct 5th - "Venom" - Tom Hardy plays a man whose body is invaded by something that talks to him in his mind, makes him powerful, controls his body, corrupts him, and makes him kill.

A bizarre coincidence that I had to share.