My Top 5 Films of 2014 So Far.

Howdy ladies and gentlemen, we’ve passed the halfway point of the year already and June’s pretty much over but on this last day I would like to give you my picks of the top 5 films I have enjoyed the most so far. Now I normally do this around mid-June however a combination of moving back home and laziness have contributed to this late blog post. So with that in mind let’s start.., But before that, HONORABLE MENTIONS!

Here is a few films that I saw this year that just missed the list but are still worth mentioning:

• Lone Survivor (one of the best war films I have seen in years with great acting, incredible action, cinematography and sound design)
• The Lego Movie (one of the most creative, funny and kick ass animated films with kick ass humour, action and amazing voice performances from the cast involved)
• Edge of Tomorrow (the biggest surprise of 2014 so far, this is an interesting, humourous, dramatic and action-packed sci-fi film with awesome performances from Emily Blunt and Tom Cruise

Remember 2013 films released this year DON’T COUNT! So with that out of the way here are my favourite films from 2014, IN REVERSE ORDER!

5. THE RAID 2: BERANDAL

So yeah this one is at an interesting place in the list. Check it, I really liked The Raid: Redemption, it was some filthy martial arts action in a confined location and had some of my favourite kills in any film ever. But I felt like it wasn’t quite enough to blow me away. So in comes the sequel and it pretty much outdoes its predecessor in every way. The story is much denser and more complex, the fight choreography is even more chaotic and complex than before and the cinematography was lovely throughout. Some people will probably say that this film should be much higher on the list, but for me there were a few nitpicks. I felt like there was a bit too much going on in the story department, some of the fight scenes went on a little longer than I would have liked and the overall length of the film I felt could have been shorter. But all that said I REALLY liked this film and it is one that any fan of martial arts or action films in general should check out.

4. 22 JUMP STREET

Now 21 Jump Street was a surprisingly fun film and in the sea of horrible comedy films I’ve had to sit through in recent years this was one I liked, so I was looking forward to the sequel but was also cautious because I didn’t want to be disappointed. Luckily 22 Jump Street was badass and pretty much exceeded any expectations had for it as it was the funniest film I’ve seen in AGES. Phil Lord and Chris Miller do the impossible and create one of the most, if not the most funny comedy sequels ever. The film is self-aware, repeats many of the plot elements from the previous film and yet is still ridiculously funny thanks to the script and brilliant acting from Channing Tatum, Jonah Hill and an especially awesome Ice Cube.

3. GODZILLA

This is probably where things are gonna get a bit more controversial, but I don’t care, bring the fire people! For me, Gareth Edwards’ new interpretation of Godzilla is pretty kick ass and considering all of the things that could have gone wrong with this film, the end result is bloody impressive. There is a story that feels big and moves across several locations, we also get treated to a cast of characters who are relevant to the plot and we also get monsters, but the one thing this film gets right more so than anything else in the presentation. The CGI was super impressive and seeing Godzilla fighting 2 other monsters was SO awesome and this film also features one of the most badass kills in any film ever. Now sure there are problems like: a strong start for the story but never stays that consistent, too much teasing for the monster fights, not so interesting human characters and the death of Bryan Cranston early on in the film. But all that aside, for all the haters of this film, just remember this… Godzilla (2014) is FAR better than the 1998 Roland Emmerich version. would you rather have that film as your only western adaptation of Godzilla again? Thought not.

2. X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST

Honestly if you had told me that X-Men: DOFP would be totally badass, I would have looked at you and said “Are you sure?” Believe me, I saw the trailers and really liked them, but since Bryan Singer hadn’t made a good film since X-Men 2 I was worried for this next instalment. Fortunately my worries were misplaced as the film was SO good and it was like a love letter to fans of the film series and comics. It bridged the gap between the newer and older films and united a massive cast of actors and actresses in one place. There was so much to love about the film from like the action set-pieces, references to comics, visual style and direction, darker and more mature tone and the film’s great sense of humour. But the best thing about the film was the fact that it pretty much fixed the X-Men film timeline by creating a new reality that destroyed the previous one (take that X-Men 3!). For some this is the best comic book film of the year, but for me there is still one that is rises above.

1. CAPTAIN AMERICA 2: THE WINTER SOLDIER

For the people who know me I’d have to ask you, “Was there any doubt in your mind?” I only got to see this film twice, but it still left a massive impression on me. The reason why Captain America: TWS is still my favourite film of 2014 is because it was everything I wanted and then some and considering how plain the first film was, this sequel was a massive surprise for a lot of people. This was a genre-specific film (political thriller mixed in with action) and it did many things that no one expected, in particular re-introducing Hydra and breaking the  secret organization known as SHIELD. What we were given by Marvel Studios was a comic book film which was smart, quick in pace and had lovely character moments too. Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson and Samuel L. Jackson pretty much perfected the roles they’ve been playing for a while now and Robert Redford, Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan did such a great job in their roles as well. I don’t think anyone expected a Captain America sequel to be so good, but it pretty much was the best effort from Marvel since The Avengers and some believe to be even better than that.

Well that’s my favourite films of 2014 so far. It has been a good year from what I’ve experienced and I’m having a much better time than I ever did this time last year. So what do you think of my choices? Do you like them or hate them? And what are your picks for th year so far? I’d love to read them so comment below and let me know. Until next people, laters! 😀

 

Shane Black Confirms That His Predator Will be a Sequel

Howdy ladies and gents, time for another news update. Now recently it was reported that the Predator series would be getting another film and it would be a reboot, written  and directed by Shane Black. Now it seems like there’s an update about this new film from the director himself. The following information comes from superherohype:

Big news broke yesterday with the reveal that Shane Black has plans to “reboot” 20th Century Fox’s Predator. Today, the Iron Man 3 writer and director (not to mention star of the John McTiernan original) tells Collider that his film does, indeed, tie to franchise continuity.

“Why start over, when you’ve all this rich mythology yet to mine?” Black says, adding that he can, “…really get behind inventive sequels.”

Black will be directing the new film and writing the treatment, which will then be scripted in full by Fred Dekker (with whom Black worked on Monster Squad).

Ah okay, well this is much better news and I think I am more down with the idea of a sequel than a reboot. For me, reboots have happened far too much a in recent years and if the Predator film series were to get rebooted only four years after the last one that would be a little too soon. So to hear that this film will be a sequel to 2010’s Predators is a nice and interesting surprise. Predators was a decent film and was the best film the series has had since the original 1987 film, it a similar kind of set-up, different and varied characters and even featured the original music too. That being said it still wasn’t strong enough to be a solid sci-fi action film. But with the way that film ended it left some interesting opportunities for any future films that would follow in the future.

 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Trailer #2 Review

Good day to you ladies and gentlemen, after a lot of trailers recently I’m finally here to review a new one and this one is fairly interesting as we’re gonna be talking about the second official trailer for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Now I’m still looking forward to nuff films over the summer like Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Guardians of the Galaxy, The Expendables 3 and Sin City: A Dame To Kill For, but this film is the one I keep forgetting about. The first trailer looked alright, but it wasn’t anything that blew me away and so far all the promotional material for this film has yet to get me pumped for this new version of the Ninja Turtles. But now we have a new trailer and I feel like I need to talk about it.

Have a look at the trailer below:

So my first thoughts after seeing the trailer? Looks better than it did before.

This is definitely the most turtle-centric trailer we’ve gotten so far as the focus on the human characters was really pushed into the backgrounds and there was more of the turtles shown than ever before. We got to see and hear the turtles as the fought soldiers, interacted with each other and April and overall it just felt more in line with the type of TMNT characters that we’ve gotten in the past. Beyond the turtles we got to see glimpses of Splinter and got to see Shredder in action as well.

So what do I like about the trailer? Well here are some things I observed:

• These Turtles Feel Like Brothers: Straight from the beginning of the trailer the for turtles are communicating talking about hostages, taking out the bad guys and saying interesting one-liners like “This is our city.”, “Like shadows in the night.” They sound cool as hell and definitely have personality.
• The Film is Self-Aware: The point when Raphael says “Give me the camera.” And Someone (probably Michelangelo) says “Look he’s doing his Batman voice.” That shows that this film actually takes place in a world similar ours where pop culture references are in the know, so stuff like the gruff Batman voice from the Christopher Nolan films is common knowledge to people. I hope that this is just a piece of more references to come throughout the film.
• The Film’s Gonna Be Funny: So far the trailers have been fairly serious, but in this one we hear a lot of funny one-liners (especially with Michelangelo talking to April, that was some funny stuff) and there’s one part in the trailer that will be sure to please and humour certain fans, but more on that later.
• William Fichtner May Not Be Shredder: For the longest time we have all been told in press stories that William Fichtner would be Shredder and that pissed off a lot of TMNT fans and I too thought it was a bit odd considering the origin of the character. However now there’s a small screen in the trailer where Fichtner’s talking to a shadowy figure saying that he’s taking his armour to the next level. So one can possibly assume that this the actual owner of the Shredder armour, which in turn could mean we may this be getting the an asian actor to play Oroku Saki, however this is just speculation at this point, but hey one can hope right?
• Shredder’s More Metal Than Man Now: That first shot when Shredder comes along and bust out to swords from both of his arm area and then releases another two on each side I was like “Damn, the Shredder’s turned into a machine!” The dude can throw and retract swords from his arms, he’s HUGE and he’s super strong as he can just throw Raphael like he’s nothing.
• The Scope of The Film Is Pretty Big: It seems like the story and action won’t just be taking place in the city of New York but also in some snowy mountains (probably outside of America) and I like film’s that can stretch beyond one location.
• They’re Not Aliens, They’re Turtles: Probably one of the most notable points of the trailer is when Will Arnett says “So they’re aliens?” And Megan Fox replies “No that’s stupid. They’re turtles.” Bam! And just like that all the backlash about the turtles being aliens that made so many fans pissed off is shut down in one sentence. This film is definite self-aware and it is sassy about it. That was a good line and pretty much made me smile.

All these things being said, I do have some nitpicks and concerns. Now I’m no massive TMNT nerd so I don’t have anything major to moan about, but the look of the turtles is still a bit iffy to me, at some angles they look really cool but other times they just look really odd and ugly. I am also not keen on how much of a robot Shredder has become, its like Silver Samurai from The Wolverine again, why must this keep happening to Japanese-armoured villains? While I’m not too frustrated with the change, I am kind of annoyed that they have to go so hardcore with the upgrades to the suit to the point where he looks like a mini Transformer. Oh and that dub step music, that’s just awful. Why is it a main source of music for trailers? Its horrible and it sucks!

So in conclusion the second trailer for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles looks pretty intriguing and honestly it has my attention now. This is the first piece of material that feels like it has the spirit of the original TMNT in there, the voice acting seems solid, the turtle action sequences look frantic, kinetic and well-choreographed and it seems like there will be humour in the film as oppose to being totally serious all of the time. While I’m still not completely sold on the film, I feel like after watching this trailer that I have more reason to watch it now.

So what do you think of the second trailer of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? Are you down with this film now or are you still unimpressed with the way this film is looking in trailer form? Whatever your thoughts are drop them in the comments below and I’ll see ya on the next review yo. 😀

 

Shane Black To Write & Direct A Predator Reboot!

Howdy ladies and gents, seems like we have some great have some great news dropped today and its something that I feel needs to be talked about. The following information come from ComicBookMovie:

Yes, Fox are rebooting Predator..again. THR report that the studio will relaunch the franchise with Shane Black on board to write the initial treatment, and then possibly direct. The actual script will be provided by Black’s pal, Fred Dekker, with whom he wrote ’80s cult favorite Monster Squad with. I’m sure you’re asking yourself why they don’t simply follow on from the last flick Predators (which wasn’t great to be fair) with a new cast and setting, but this is the way things are done in Hollywood now and that’s that. John Davis, who produced the original with Joel Silver and Lawrence Gordon, will also produce the reboot.

Feels like things are coming full circle now. I mean Shane Black was an actor in the first (and best) Predator film and now he’s directing a new film in the series, that’s crazy how life works. But anyway how do I feel about this news? I’m definitely intrigued. Now do I think its good for their to be a Predator reboot in the works so early on after the last one in 2010? No absolutely not, that is the definition ‘too soon’. But that being said, I didn’t want the this series to end with Predators, that film was alright but nothing to write home about. I do want another Predator film and I am down for it coming from Shane Black. The dude is a good writer, knows how to get the best out of his actors and handles action well too and again, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is one of my favourite films in recent history and Iron Man 3, regardless of what anyone says is still a good film for me. So if there was someone with style and flair that I would like it to be Black. As long as they bring it back to basics, make the Predator alien the main enemy and give us decent characters (and no Topher Grace), then we are fine.

For me this is good call and I’m down. So what do you think of this news? Comment below and let me know yo! 😀

 

Arrow Season 1 Review

Good day to you ladies and gentlemen, time for another TV review and today I’ll be giving my thoughts on the first season of Arrow. Now I’ve known about this show for AGES, but have not had the time to watch it because of my other TV commitments, but now that the show’s at a very high point of popularity and looks to be expanding with the third season later on this year, I thought I might as well jump in and see what the fuss what about.

The story can described as the following:

“After being marooned for five years on a remote island, billionaire Oliver Queen returns home with a mysterious agenda and a lethal set of new skills that he uses in a war on crime in this hard-hitting action series. After suffering unimaginable ordeals on the island, the Oliver returns to Starling City a new man — determined to right the wrongs of his father and sworn to bring justice to those who’ve corrupted his city. But Oliver finds his crusade complicated by his friends and family who are all affected by his return.”

While this show is about Oliver Queen’s quest for justice, at the same time really about lies and deceit. Deception is one the main themes that you take away from it, no one is clean-cut, someone always has a secret or is telling lies in some shape or form. This makes it hard to trust anyone’s judgment as someone you like could be someone else in disguise, and that applies to not only each of the characters in the show but for you as a viewer, your opinion on certain people begin to shift as the series progresses and more and more of the story and mystery is revealed. One of the main things I like about the show is that not one episode is the same, there is always something new to learn and when you think that one subject matter has come to a close in one episode, later on in the season it comes back in an unexpected way.

Episode highlights:

• Pilot
• Honor Thy Father
• Lone Gunmen
• An Innocent Man
• Damaged
• Legacies
• Muse of Fire
• Vendetta
• Year’s End
• Burned
• Vertigo
• Betrayal
• The Odyssey
• The Huntress Returns
• Salvation
• Unfinished Business
• Home Invasion
• The Undertaking
• Darkness on the Edge of Town
• Sacrifice

As for the cast they are all pretty good and there’s not really anyone that does a bad job.

Stephen Amell as Oliver Queen/The Hood is great, Queen embodies everything that is great about modern superheroes, he’s cool, knows how to fight, is athletic and has a backstory and character traits that make him engaging. I like how Queen is very similar to Batman in the sense that he’s a man who operates on his own rules, is not trusted entirely by his own city and police force and believes he’s doing the right thing but can never always be in the right. Amell is cool, really aggressive and emotional and I love how much he puts into the character physically and mentally. Katie Cassidy as Laurel Lance is lovely, she is the first of many gorgeous women in this show. Laurel is a very complicated character, she has a hard history to deal with when it comes to her family and with the reappearance of Oliver in her life things don’t get better as her hatred for him is high. However as the series progresses she changes a lot as she starts get into some of these dangerous situations, starts to reconnect with Oliver and gets closer to her father.

Colin Donnell is nice as Tommy Merlyn, he’s fun, lively, care-free, but also serious and very caring about the people he cares about. Oliver’s best friend and they have a lot of history together along with Laurel and this makes for an awkward yet hard to ignore love triangle. I do like this guy for the most part, but at times he’s very whiny and insecure. Willa Holland is another lovely lady who is good as Thea Queen. Thea is Oliver’s sister and she has a lot of layers and like Laurel is complicated. Thea loves her family, but finds it hard to connect with Oliver after he returns, hasn’t gotten over the loss of her father and can’t stand secrets being kept from her, all these things have led to a life of drinking, drugs and other things that have messed her up emotionally. Thea is cool, but because of her up and down emotions it is hard to like her for a consistent period of time. Susanna Thompson is good and interesting as Moira Queen. This is the mother of Oliver and Thea and she seems nice at first glance, but as the season continues you see there is some hidden depths to her character and she isn’t the nice, clean-cut person that she started out as.

David Ramsey is awesome as John Diggle, he is Oliver’s right-hand man who helps out with his quest for justice. Diggle is hardcore, funny, he can fight, has a great backstory and is the voice of reason at times.He’s the best kind of bodyguard and friend that one could ever have. Emily Bett Rickards is wonderful as Felicity Smoak. Felicity is this super strange, quirky and funny who is very good is very good with computers and helps Oliver and Diggle out on their missions. Paul Blackthorne is pretty good as Quentin Lance, at first he comes across as any other kind of hard-ass cop who believes in the law and hates rule-breakers like The Hood, in addition to that he’s te father of Laurel and had a hard time dealing with her death and blames Oliver for it. At first he’s just an unlikable asshole, but then he eventually becomes tolerable and kind of cool too. John Barrowman is really cool as Malcolm Merlyn, he’s the father of Tommy and like Moira he has a pretty dense and questionable history and the way Malcolm’s presence develops over the course of the season is nothing short of intriguing and badass. Manu Bennett is coolest guy ever as Slade Wilson. As soon as I heard this man’s name I knew I was in for something cool and the show doesn’t disappoint as he is every bit as cool, badass and interesting as I would have hoped even though they’d changed a few things about his comic book characteristics.

Colin Salmon as Walter Steele is pretty good too, at first it he is a bit hard to attach to because he is a person not part of the Queen family (by blood), however when you get to know him, learn his backstory and see what he gets up to, you learn that Walter is pretty important. Colton Haynes as Roy Harper is pretty interesting, this is another person who I know of from the comics and was instantly curious about how the show would interpret the character. Harper is born in a rough neighbourhood, he is a survivor and while he has good intentions, he can’t stay away from crime. Jessica De Gouw as Helena Bertinelli is really pretty and is also pretty badass too, I did not expect her character to be so interesting and engaging but I loved her contribution to this show. Celina Jade is another beautiful lady of the show who plays Shado, another woman who is a very skilled fighter and is also pretty smart too. Kelly Hu is both hot and deadly as China White and I loved her appearances in this show and lastly seeing Chin Han as Frank Chen was cool too.

The presentation of the show should also get a mention as it is very good for TV standards, luckily since Arrow doesn’t doesn’t require a large amount of special effects because it doesn’t deal with anything too heavily related to sci-fi, fantasy or other-worldly type of things. But when CGI is involved its pretty good for the most part and looks a lot better than some other shows that use it. What Arrow really excels in is the great cinematography used for its action scenes and sequences, using dynamic camera shots and having very good and atmospheric lighting and colours. Also the fight choreography needs to be mentioned too as it is very tight and gorgeous to look at and as a fan of hand-to-hand combat this was some good stuff for me, though at times the speed of the fights seemed a bit slow and some of the fights seemed a bit too choreographed and not very natural, but hey those are only minor nitpicks at best.

In conclusion the first season of Arrow is a very good show that approaches its superhero roots in a very different way, it approaches things in a very realistic manner, but also doesn’t shy away from elements that make a good superhero story worth telling. While I feel some episodes were a bit dull and the season could have been shortened a bit, there is a great number of stories to be told, with wonderful acting from the cast involved and lovely amounts of action to keep you invested throughout.

Rating: 8.5/10

So what did you think of the first season of Arrow? Whatever your thoughts are be sure to leave them in the comments below and I’ll be sure to come back for my review of season 2! 😀

 

Rosario Dawson Joins Marvel’s Daredevil!

Good day to you ladies and gents, time for some news from the world of upcoming comic book adaptations and today I’ll be talking about a casting update relating to Daredevil. Now I talked about Charlie Cox’s involvement in the show, since then Vincent D’Onofrio was announced as Wilson Fisk (aka Kingpin) and now we have another face to add to the show The following information comes from superherohype:

Marvel and Netflix announced today that Sin City and Kids star Rosario Dawson is set to join the cast of “Marvel’s Daredevil,” the new 13-episode series coming to Netflix in 2015.

Dawson will, according to the press release, play “a dedicated young woman whose quest to heal the wounds of Hell’s Kitchen brings Matt Murdock unexpectedly crashing into her life, while her own journey forever alters the course of his battle against the injustices of this broken city.” She joins Charlie Cox (previously announced as Matt Murdock) and Vincent D’Onofrio (previously announced as Wilson Fisk).

Although its purely speculative at this point, that character description does fit the Marvel Comics character “Night Nurse,” who was reintroduced to the Marvel Universe during Brian Michael Bendis’ run on “Daredevil” in 2004. The character also played a major part in Brian K. Vaughan’s “Doctor Strange” miniseries in 2006.

“Rosario Dawson is one the most charismatic, talented and powerful actresses in Hollywood, so she was always at the top of our list for ‘Marvel’s Daredevil,’” said Jeph Loeb, Marvel’s Head of Television. “Her role in the series is absolutely critical to Matt Murdock’s journey to become the hero we know as Daredevil.”

Well I think this is the biggest casting news to come out of this series so far and to be honest it is the most interesting. Dawson has been on my radar of actress since I saw her in Men In Black 2 (yeah sure it wasn’t a very good film, but she wasn’t bad it in), ever since then I’ve enjoyed her performances in films like Sin City, Trance, Clerks 2 and Seven Pounds. She’s a fine actress and she is a gorgeous woman too and I for one am happy that someone of her caliber is being added to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. As for who she’ll be playing, I’m not sure. I know nothing of the characters that reside within the world of Daredevil besides the main character himself and a few of the villains and allies. As for the character that is speculated in the article, I done a bit of reading up about the character and this Night Nurse character sounds pretty important and would really fit into not only this show but also the connected world Marvel Studios are trying to create with these Netflix shows with Luke Cage, Iron Fist and Jessica Jones.

So what do you think of this casting news? Be sure to leave a comment below and let me know! 😀

 

Rian Johnson to Write and Direct Star Wars: Episode VIII!

Howdy ladies and gentlemen, time for a news update and what a piece of news it was. Seems like everything is going full steam ahead in the world of Star Wars with Episode VII filming away and the recent talks of the first spin-off going into production pretty soon too. And now news of the next chapter already with an interesting new face in the writing and directing chair. The following information comes from superherohype:

In a major update to the future of the Star Wars saga on the big screen, Deadline is reporting that Brick, Looperand The Brothers Bloom helmer Rian Johnson is making plans to write and direct Star Wars: Episode VIII. Although the outlet is also reporting that he’ll direct Star Wars: Episode IX, TheWrap claims that Johnson will only provide a treatment for the saga-finale and that a director for that final film has not yet been decided on. We’ll update with official word as soon as it’s available.

Johnson joins a seemingly ever-growing slate of top directors that are setting lightspeed coordinates for a galaxy far, far away. J.J. Abrams is currently filming Star Wars: Episode VII while both Gareth Edwards (Godzilla, Monsters) and Josh Trank (Chronicle) are planning to helm solo films. The plan is for a new Star Wars film to hit every year beginning with Episode VII on December 18, 2015.

Johnson took to Twitter as news of the deal broke, sharing his thoughts on the announcement via the below video clip from Phil Kaufman’s 1983 film The Right Stuff. (Please be aware, the clip does contain some strong language).

Well this is definitely a surprise, but a pleasant one for sure. While it was never confirmed that J.J. Abrams would direction the next episode in the Star Wars series, I am surprised to learn that they’ve announced plans for Episode VIII already. However if anyone is to handle the next main film in this series I am happy that it is Rian Johnson. I really loved Looper and knew that after that film he would probably direct some great films in the future, but he’s been fairly quiet over the last year and a bit (though he has directed a few episode of Breaking Bad), but now we know he’s taking on the beast that is Star Wars and if his previous directing efforts are anything to go by then I think we’re in good hands. The man knows sci-fi and seems to be able to direct actors pretty well so I’ll be curious to see how Episode VIII will differ from VII in terms of the style and tone of direction and writing too.

So what do you think of this news? Be sure to comment below and let me know yo! 😀

 

Favourite Songs #31: Love Split Love – How Soon Is Now?

Howdy people of the interweb, and welcome to the 31st edition of my series of blog posts dedicated to some of my favourite songs ever in life. Can’t believe I’ve made it to 30 posts already, though I think we can go further! Anyway today I’m going to talk about my favourite songs from college in form of Love Split Love’s “How Soon is Now?“.

Yes, now this is my song, definitely one of the songs I could add to the soundtrack for my life. This is one of those songs that any time it comes shows up on my music playlist I fall into a good groove, I smile and jam away. No matter how times I hear this song, I never get tired of it.

Just have a listen to the tune below:

Ever since my childhood, I’ve remembered this song as the main theme song for the TV show Charmed (yes I used to watch this show, mainly because of my mum and sister’s obsession with it). And even though the show wasn’t actually that bad, the main reason I liked watching the show was because I looked forward to the intro song.

So I think it was around the time I was 17 or 18, I found the song again and I really got into it and it became on of my main jams on my mp3 player. So what is it that makes this song so addictive? Well I think it just has a gorgeous sound that’s very enticing from the time the song begins to the point in which it ends. That introduction is just amazing, just the way it builds up and becomes a fully fledged jam, the vocals from the main singer is lovely too, but I think it is the main chorus area is when the song really starts to get me going.

I never actually found that this version of the song was actually a cover until around my second year of college. It wasn’t until I was messing around in the radio suite and heard the original song by The Smiths and my world was rocked. I really like the original Smiths version, but I was surprised how much Love Split Love kept intact in terms of the structure and main melody but just jazzed it up for a 90’s with a more rock-influenced sound.

So to conclude “How Soon Is Now?” by Love Split Love is a great song, it is filled to the brim with great guitar work and lovely vocals and very memorable lyrics. It is one of those songs that after you here the first time you’ll never be able to forget and you need to have in your collection. If you’ve never checked this song out before then check it out, its super good.

Well that’s another song review done, what do you think of my song choice today? Whatever your thoughts are leave me a comment below and be sure to come back next time for another song review yo! 😀

 

Reviews & Marathons Coming To This Blog For The Summer.

Howdy to all of my fellow subscribers and people of the internet. Today I thought I would give you a little taste of what’s coming up on this blog from now until the end of summer. Recently I’ve had a lot of stuff to do and sort out what with university being ending and me having to move house soon, so now that I’ve just about gotten things in order I think it is about time that I created some structure and consistency with this blog. So with all that in mind I want to give you lot some foreshadowing of what I’ve got planned. 🙂

Film Reviews New & Old

So yeah my film reviews for this blog have a been a bit up and down since March of this year and it is only in the last month when things have started to stabilize and I’ve been able to have sessions at the cinema again. And even though June is a pretty dry month for films, July is nearly upon us and I promise to be around as frequently as possible and review as many films as possible. Most important of those film releases will be Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, How to Train Your Dragon 2 and even Transformers: Age of Extinction too haha (I hope I don’t live to regret this decision). But beyond that there are a lot of films I have in my DVD collection that I’ve always wanted to talk about on this blog so yeah I’ll be discussing those at some point as well.

Some More TV Reviews

So as some of you may be aware, I’ve been getting a more into my TV-based reviews since late last year and recently I’ve been reviewing a lot of Castle (mainly because of blind addiction). And while I have yet to catch up on season 6, I still have to get back to Buffy the Vampire Slayer and soon I will be talking about shows like Arrow, Ultimate Spider-Man (again) and will FINALLY be getting around to Hotel Babylon too.

More Song Reviews

I remember when I started doing song reviews on a consistent basis and then gave up on the weekly timing and just did it when I had a free hour in the day. But now I barely get to talk about some of my favourite songs, so I’m just letting you know that I have plenty coming up coming from The Smiths, Love Split Love, Puddle of Mudd, Red Hot Chili Peppers and many more. I’ll also be doing a top 10 list of songs from my favourite anime opening songs and another thing I will be revisiting will be my favourite music in video games.

More Album Reviews

Reviewing music albums is something I’ve really started to enjoy after getting into the groove of it last year. Unfortunately I haven’t been doing very many of those recent. I’ve had a review of Pharrell’s last album in my drafts for MONTHS that I have yet to finish and being a massive fan of Jack White I really should have gotten around to reviewing his new album on here too. I also need to get back to my reviews of Deadmau5 that I started last summer too.

The No Doubt Marathon

In addition to the album reviews I mentioned above, I will be doing an album marathon review for one of my favourite bands ever, No Doubt. Over the course of 2012 to 2013 I was on a massive high with their music and went through every album and I’ve wanted to review their music on this blog but I wanted to make sure that if I did a review, it’d be all at once. So look forward to that craziness when it goes down.

Month of Comic Book Film Reviews 2

Yeah, I’m stepping back into this department again. Last year I did one of the craziest things I could have done on this blog, I did 30 days of film reviews dedicated to comic book films and it put me through the ringer. I got to watch a lot of films, some I loved, some I hated, some I had watched recently and some I had not seen in years. Overall it was fun… That being said, there are still many films I left untouched, some I have yet to see, some I do not wish to see again and there is some suffering that I shall endure for your entertainment, so look forward to the return of my comic book reviews when they come.

So that’s just a small taste of what’s coming on the horizon for this blog, so please stick around over the next two months as I have a lot of filthy things I’ll be bringing to this blog.

 

22 Jump Street Review

Good day to you ladies and gentlemen and welcome to a new film review (man it feels like ages since I’ve said that haha) and today I’ll be talking about 22 Jump Street, a film I’ve been looking forward to for a long time now. As most of the people who follow this blog know, I’m not overly fond of comedies, however there are a few that I do like and 21 Jump Street surprised me back in 2012 so I was definitely down for the sequel especially after the trailers dropped. So how does this comedy sequel fare? Well read on and find out!

The story for the film can be summarised as the following:

“After making their way through high school (twice), big changes are in store for officers Schmidt and Jenko when they go deep undercover at a local college. But when Jenko meets a kindred spirit on the football team, and Schmidt infiltrates the bohemian art major scene, they begin to question their partnership. Now they don’t have to just crack the case – they have to figure out if they can have a mature relationship. If these two overgrown adolescents can grow from freshmen into real men, college might be the best thing that ever happened to them.”

In a nutshell this story is awesome. The story on display here basically does the same thing again, except changes the setting and story elements, like for instance instead of it being school it is college and rather than Jenko having a bad time, its Schmidt this time round. 22 Jump Street does what The Hangover 2 tried to do, but rather than fail miserably, this film gets the sequel formula right. I will admit at the beginning I thought the film was just alright, but around the middle when Ice Cube came into the film more was when the film really picked up and by the end it was insanely funny. The humour is just as funny as its predecessor, if not more so, but beyond that the story has some touching moments to it too. I love how self-aware the film is, it references a lot of pop culture, pokes fun at itself and the concept of film sequels and at one point even does something similar to Tropic Thunder but takes it to a new level of fun and absurdity.

When it comes to the cast they’re all very good offering various levels of humour throughout. Firstly there’s Jonah Hill as Morton Schmidt and Channing Tatum as Greg Jenko. They’re back as this odd dynamic duo and they’re just as funny, if not funnier than they were before. These two clearly are having fun with their roles and they’re chemistry is amazing and kinetic. Hill is funny because of his character’s awkward lines of dialogue, weird interactions with people and poor levels of physical strength and Tatum is funny because his character is a blockhead, seems to be some kind of superhuman and his stupidity leads to some really funny one-liners in the film. Also I just want to note how frigging cool Tatum was, his action scenes were awesome and his acrobatic moments really make him look like he’ll fit into a superhero film in the future (let’s hope he does Gambit justice). Ice Cube as Capt. Dickson is just on the highest level of awesomeness in this film. I thought Dickson was funny in the last film, but here he is on fire just being like the most angry stereotypical black man ever and Cube just kills it. I have not laughed at one person so much in a film in a long time.

Peter Stormare as Ghost is great too, he’s the main bad guy and he has a bit of stage play performer vibe about him, but I like that and how cocky and weird he is too. Wyatt Russell as Zook is just amazing, he is a very odd man, he has some very strange personality traits and dreams, but that’s what makes him so funny and his interaction with Jenko is awesome. Amber Stevens is gorgeous as Maya, she’s a person Schmidt befriends and she’s a smart and kind-hearted soul, I like her. Jillian Bell as Mercedes is really funny, her lines in this film were insane, rude and kind of repetitive in the subject manner but also funny. Also seeing the return of Nick Offerman as Deputy Chief Hardy is just perfect, I love how Hardy delivered his lines in such a deadpan kind of way, Offerman was clearly channeling his inner Ron Swanson as it was pretty much the exact same character and to be honest I loved it. Dave Franco as Eric Molson and Rob Riggle as Mr. Walters were awesome in their segment in the film too. There are also some cameos in the film that I won’t spoil which are just awesome and hilarious.

In conclusion 22 Jump Street is awesome and is a prime example of how to do a comedy sequel correctly. I had hoped for a good experience watching this film, but it was way funnier than I expected and I was actually laughing out loud which has not happened since 2011. This a great fun-filled experience which is basically the same thing again, but better. I can easily recommend this as some summer fun in the cinema.

Rating: 8/10 (Ice Cube is a don! XD)

So what did you think of 22 Jump Street? Did it meet your expectations or were you let down? Whatever your thoughts are be sure to leave them in the comments below and I’ll see ya on the next film review. Laters! 😀