SmokkeeScreenings +

GLASS (2019) - Review

2019-01-17T17:13:00.000-08:00

I was telling a friend of mine this morning that I'm glad I didn't Tweet out my first thoughts after seeing GLASS, the latest film from plot twist master M Night Shayamalan. If I had, you would've seen a Tweet from @MrGBIZ saying:

"Even though I HATED the ending, I still think this movie is somewhere between OK and pretty good."

Then I went to bed thinking about it and when I woke up, I gave it some more thought. Now, even though I'm still mad about the ending, I realize there's no other way this movie could've ended.

I'm getting ahead of myself.

Quick review before I go into details that, depending on your movie knowledge, may or may not be entering spoiler territory. So I'll keep it quick, simple and painless. Bruce Willis gives us the same typical every-man acting job he gives in, honestly, almost every movie he's ever been in. If you're a fan of every-men movies, movies where the heroes and heroines are your typical average Joes more like than unlike me, then you know this is not a complaint. The same is true for Glass as well but the irony is he's far from an everyman in this movie. He's a vigilante who is trying to to track down a serial killer known as the Horde (James McAvoy, who does more acting in this movie as a man with 20+ multiple personalities than Bruce Willis has in 40+ roles) who has just kidnapped four girls. David Dunn (Willis) has the early advantage in the fact that Kevin Crumb (McAvoy) doesn't even know Dunn exists, much less think that any body could stop him. Kevin's multiple personalities are aware of each other but one personality is much more dangerous than all of the others combined. Dunn manages to find where Crumb has the girls hidden and frees them but not before Crumb has returns. Crumb and Dunn do battle but are interrupted by a doctor who's intrigued not only by Crumb but by Dunn as well.

That's about as far as I can go with the plot details before we get into spoilers so let me stop right there. The action I go into detail about above all happens within the first 30 minutes. The rest of the movie is about Dr Staple's (Sarah Paulson who I thought could've been used more) attempts at getting Dunn, Crumb, and a third patient Elijah Price aka the eponymous Glass (Samuel Jackson, who's face in this movie alone may have out-acted Bruce Willis) to realize how delusion they really are.

Let me tell you this is a fairly gloomy movie. A lot of the early scenes are shots of Dunn on the Hunt for Crumb in the daytime but it still seems dark. Ditto once the movie moves to the mental institution that Staple runs and there's plenty of light's inside but I still felt the lighting was off. Maybe intentional? I don't know. It didn't take away much from the film. The acting was great too, even though Bruce Willis was just Bruce Willis'ing, I felt that was perfect for this movie. Jackson & McAvoy definitely did the heavy lifting here but again, let me add that Sarah Paulson was criminally underused.

Before I mention any other actors in this movie, let me do something I hate doing and be a little spoiler-y.

Besides Paulson's Dr Staple, most of the main characters first appearred in previous Shayamalan movies.

If you've seen Shayamalan's second movie UNBREAKABLE, you've met David and Elijah already. If not, stop reading this... waitwaitwait! Before I say that, let me tell you that you may have met Crumb too, in Shayaman's last movie SPLIT.

Three other characters from those two movies pop up here as well. Spencer Treat Clark plays David's son Joseph and it wasn't until after I looked up Unbreakable that I realized he played Joseph in the original but his role here is a little meatier this time around. Charlayne Woodard also returned from Unbreakable as Elijah's mom. Last and most confusingly, Anya Taylor-Joy aka my new favorite Scream Queen returns as Casey, the Final Girl from Split.

No, Casey (Anya Taylor-Joy), baby what are you doing?

There's no clear cut reason for her to return and whenever she is on the screen she is doing the exact opposite of what I think she should be doing. I did not buy Casey possibly, improbably, suffering from Stockholm Syndrome after all she had been through.

Bruce Willis and Spencer Treat Clark in UNBREAKABLE

All that said, if you've never seen
any of those movies, go watch them both. Unbreakable proved to me that Shayamalan might have mastered the plot twist even more so than his breakout movie THE SIXTH SENSE did. Split technically has TWO twists you're not supposed to see coming but that second twist (sorry but yeah... SPOILER ALERT!) is the fact that it's continuing the story started in Unbreakable. Furthermore, if you've already watched the trailer for Glass, you might be able to figure out what that first Split twist is from that. Sorry. Had to be said.

Now, if you've only seen one movie and not the other or neither, you don't necessarily need to see those movies to get this one. In fact, I'd be willing to bet you'd like this movie more than I did because you're not expecting anything. I expected... nevermind. Just know I didn't get the ending I felt this trilogy deserved.

As far as the ending... Well, if you're familiar with a Shayamalan movie, you KNOW there's a twist coming because that's what he does and he carries on with that tradition here. Do I feel like he stuck the landing with this twist? Admittedly, I didn't. At first. In fact, let me repeat, I HATED it. Then when I woke up this morning and gave it further thought, I realized that this ending is perfect, not the ending I wanted nor expected and I still HATE it but it's spot on, that much I can't deny. In fact, there's usually just one route that Shayamalan could have chose to take Dunn, Crumb and any other individual who has extraordinary talents, but trust me you've seen those movies a thousand times over already so the movie was wise not to go that route. I loved the fact that Shayamalan chose to go the opposite direction. Needless to say, I didn't see this plot twist coming.

Escape Room (2019) - Smokkee's Review

2019-01-01T15:21:00.004-08:00

Most of my readers know I'm a sucker for a good mystery and stories whose plots starts off with lines like "6 strangers...", which means I most likely would have been a bit more anxious to see this movie than I was. Admittedly I went into Escape Room with low expectations, knowing next to nothing of the plot when I went to see it. I hadn't even watched the trailer, partly because I didn't know this movie existed. To top it off, "Escape Room" is the kind of cheesy title that has "direct to video" written all over it. I expected to at best be mildly entertained by it or, at worst, hate that I let another bad movie still 90 minutes from me. I love it when a movie surprises me in a good way. My only problem with this movie is I'm not sure I can recommend it.

I guess Zoey (Taylor Russell) never seen Hellraiser.

After an opening scene which depicts a man begging to be let out of a shrinking room on the verge of crushing the man to death until it's interrupted by the title screen, we're introduced to our six strangers. We meet ne'er do well Ben also the guy who was getting crushed at the beginning (Logan Miller), while his at work at a Home Depot-ish type store, then a college student named Zoey (Taylor Russell) and finally a businessman named Jason (Jay Ellis) as they all in various ways receive a gift in the form of a puzzle box. These boxes would give me too many flashbacks to Hellraiser's Lemarchand Configuration cube for me to fool around with it but these people's curiosity gets the better of them. We watch them figure out the puzzle boxes until they each get rewarded with an invitation to win $1 million if they can manage to escape the Escape Room. Essentially, the Escape Room is an interactive entertainment experience akin to a Murder Mystery Party featuring a series of locked rooms where the participants must use clues to help them exit. Each winds up in a nondescript waiting room where they meet the other three participants Danny (Nik Dodani), Amanda (Deborah Ann Woll, Daredevil's Karen Page), and Mike (Tyler Labine, who had me kicking myself for not recognizing Dale of Dale And Tucker Vs Evil fame). After a few minutes of getting familiar with each other via a few antagonizing comments, they realize the game had already gotten started and soon after that, they realize the stakes are a lot higher than expected.

And here's where I have to stop. Not much more I can tell you about the plot without spoiling it. Also, I was giving myself a headache trying to make sense of what happens. The fact that I've been thinking about it lets me know I was entertained but will anybody else be?

I liked this movie in the same way I love Smoking Aces, Way of the Gun, and the Saw series. In other words I was entertained throughout however there are so many plot-holes that become even more apparent once you know more about what's going on that if you tried to give this movie much thought, then like me you'd probably give yourself a headache too. If you liked any of those movies I just mentioned then you'll most likely like this movie too but if you're a stickler for coherent plots, you might want to skip this one. I say go for it.

Upgrade (2018) - Movie Review

2018-05-16T17:07:00.000-07:00

Hello, WORLD!!!! How the hell are ya? Have y’all recovered from Avengers: Infinity War yet? Good, cause I got another movie you might need to recover from. I just left Leigh Whannell’s latest movie Upgrade last night. Now, since it’s been a minute since I’ve done a review, let me just tell you if I think it's worth watching right now after I give you a quick synopsis.

Upgrade is about a mechanic who's wife has been murdered after their semi auto-piloted driving car crashes. the mechanic himself has been left paralyzed by the ordeal but a former client of his offers him a microchip implant that would not only give him back the use of his body but also help him find the men responsible. Bottom line, I recommend this movie. Out of 5 stars I’d give it 3 1/2.

Still here? Good. Let me see if I still know how to review a movie in a traditional sense. Bare with me, WORLD. I'm a bit rusty. *Ahem*

Directed by Leigh Whannell of Saw and Insidious fame, Upgrade is bloody at parts and action packed but mainly a straight forward telling of a futuristic revenge movie. One can probably guess how this film ends as I did. I saw the ending coming a mile away then it happened just as I thought it would. Then, it didn't.

Upgrade happens in the not so distant future. A mechanic named Grey

Logan Marshall-Green

(Logan Marshall-Green) repairs a vehicle for a Google-like technology company's wunderkind CEO Eron (Harrison Gilbertson). After repairing the vehicle Grey and his wife Asha (Melanie Vallejo), an employee of a company that's somewhat a rival of Eron's own company, drop the vehicle off at Eron's beach-house (literally, it's a house under a beach). While there, Eron introduces the couple to STEM, a microchip Eron touts as the future of evolution. Grey laments that it'll mean "10 guys on the unemployment line", to which Eron says nothing.

As the couple head home in a semi automated vehicle provided by Asha's company, the self-driving car's system fails, the car overturns and the couple appear to suffer only minor injuries until a team of men show up, shoot Grey in the neck and murder Asha. A few months later, Eron visits a paralyzed Grey offering a chance to get the use of his body back with help from the STEM chip. Of course, it wouldn't be a movie if Grey didn't take Eron up on this offer, right? And of course, the experiment works, Grey gets the use of his body back, and all is right with the world for all of 5 minutes until Grey hears a voice in his head.

STEM turns out to be much more than a second chance for Grey to have full body movement. Much more. Among other things, it can also communicate with the owner of the body it's been implanted in. This turns out to be a plus for Grey, who is so not happy with the job the police, led by Officer Cortez (Get Out's Betty Gabriel), have been doing trying to identify his assailants. Apparently, having the video of the assault thanks to recording drones everywhere still can't lead the police to the perpetrators. Good old STEM saw the video once and seemed to gain more knowledge about the assailants identities than the police did.

What follows during rest of the movie could best be described as a mix of Taken and The Matrix. Marshall-Green's presence through out the film was the real draw for me. Even if he acted a little wooden in certain scenes, you knew his motivation and saw it clearly on his face. Gabriel, who was underused until a little past the two thirds of the movie was done, was very effective and charismatic as a somewhat ineffective officer but again, I will say she was underused. On another note, I do think adding her to this movie was inspired casting. This movie and Get Out could almost play off of each other if one watched them both at the same time. As Eron, Gilbertson was giving off those creepy vibes that actors like Crispin Glover or Dane DeHaan provide so easily.

Still, this film isn't without it's flaws. The bad guys, lead by Benedict Hardie's Fisk, didn't stand out much to me but I believe that was because the plot didn't require them to. The movie looked fantastic at first but as the movie went on, the future started to look more and more generic. It doesn't distract you from the movie once everything gets rolling so it's not really a big deal but this movie could've been set in the present day and the movie would've still worked. Also, the dialogue was groan inducing at times. I literally groaned at the dialogue... a lot. And for this movie to be somewhat of a horror movie, it's not horrifying at all. It's quite the opposite. When I wasn't groaning I was LMAO. I wasn't the only one either. The audience I viewed this movie with was laughing as often as I was. There's two maybe three scenes that even come close to horror but even those got plenty of laughs from the crowd. It's not Shakespeare, for sure, but if you wanted action and a few good laughs plus a great plot twist, then this movie is for you. Overall, the film was great. I can't wait to see it again.

A Is For Apps (Like Agar.io And Alchemy), An #AToZChallenge 2016 Post

2016-04-01T16:31:00.000-07:00

Guess who's Biz-ack? Long time no see right? Well, things have been crazy for me lately. I'll get into what's been up with me in a post real soon...maybe. Here's a short version if you're impatient: my main problem is I've been somewhat focused distracted, by that I mean I've been focused on doing so much, I'm not accomplishing as much as I want to accomplish. I'm trying to read tons of books while finishing my first 2 books, start another business because while my blogs do provide some income I don't have enough readers to mainly just blog plus I'm not blogging enough to gain more readers because of other endeavors.

Whatever.

At least I'm blogging now and I ain't even got to the topic yet. You see what I mean by distracted. Well, the gist of this A To Z Challenge is every Monday through Friday in April, bloggers like myself will write one post a day for every letter in the alphabet. Today's the first day so today's letter is A.

For my A post, I've decided to write about one of my other biggest distractions: apps. These mobile phone applications are now multi-million dollar industries in their own right. Don't believe me? Just Google how much money Fb paid for Instagram, or how much they were willing to pay Twitter back when Twitter first got started to buy that app. Or think about the fact that recently Nintendo and Sony's Playstation division both are putting out apps on mobile phones now and not on they're own systems. Nintendo's first app, Miimoto was released today. Spoiler alert: That's probably gonna be my M post, lbvs. Or figure out how some of the most profitable game apps on these phones are actually free to download but make money from in app sales. Or advertisements, those annoying ads that pop up in the middle of a game so much that you're almost forced to buy the paid version just to keep your sanity.

I'm sure you know what apps are.
We all know what apps are. But they're are sooooooooo many of them it's hard to find the good ones without a recommendation so I'll be pointing out a few good ones to you over the course of this month.

I ate a Donald Trump that was trying to eat a George Bush!

While I'm on that subject, I might as well tell you about my current newest addiction, a blob-eat-blob app called Agar.io. You're a blob in a sea of blobs, some of which are computer generated but most of

Then Obama ate me. I hope it ate that green blob on it's left!

which are other app users. The purpose of this very, very simple game is to become the biggest blob on the game and you do that by eating other blobs. Sounds easy right?

Well, it is. Eat until you're the biggest blob on the game. The problem is that it's the only rule on the game so EVERYBODY is trying to do the same thing. Another issue is speed. When you're a tiny dot, you're a speedster but just like in real life, the more weight you add the slower you move. You can chase a smaller blob forever and never catch it if it doesn't get as big as you and if it does that, then it's your turn to run. The only real chance a larger blob has of catching a smaller blob is if it spits a piece of itself at the smaller blob, essentially splitting itself in half which reminds me of my next piece of advise. Be careful!! All blobs aren't healthy for you! They're some green blobs with little spikes on them that will break you down into multiple much smaller, easier to eat blobs. If you're a smaller blob, these green blobs are like safe zones; the much bigger blogs will not want to eat you if you're around one of those things.

I love this game now. The longest game I've played lasted 10 minutes. The quickest games don't even last 5... those other blobs are thirsty! If you can manage to eat like a few 100 minidots, you won't have as many predators as you do when you first start but there is almost ALWAYS another blob bigger than you somewhere out there.

That's it for now, WORLD. It's good to be back too. Thanks for having me again. Outta.

...into these icons.

Turn these icons...

WAITWAITWAITWAIT!! I almost forgot! I mentioned TWO apps in the title, right? The second game, Alchemy, isn't a typical type game but it's the first game I really liked on Androids, which makes it perfect for this post. The
game is a game for thinkers with a sense of humor. You start off with four icons: earth, wind, fire, and water. The object is to combine those icons to create over 300 more icons. For example when you combine fire and air, you get energy. When you combine air and air, you get wind. When you combine earth and fire, you get lava. Combine lava and water and you'll get stone. This game is one for thinkers but almost anybody will enjoy it. NOW I'm outta, for real this time.

W is for Wa.. (#ABizzeePick or 2) (#AtoZChallenge)

2015-04-30T11:20:00.002-07:00

Today is the last day of the A to Z Challenge for bloggers running in the month of April. The gist of this challenge was we were supposed to submit one post a day except for Sundays for the entire month of April. As it stands right now, I'm 3 post behind. I should be submitting my Z post right now. Yet here I am with my W post.

What's interesting is I had an idea I would wind up picking a movie for W. I even knew which movie, 2000's 'Way of the Gun' starring Ryan Phillippe and Benicio del Toro. To me, this movie is a surprisingly overlooked classic. The beginning scene, featuring a young Sarah Silverman (trust me, if you're familiar with her you'll recognize her instantly) sets the tone for this exercise in double crosses. The plot, which is simple enough to cover in one sentence, is the least complicated thing about this movie. A couple of unscrupulous guys (Phillippe and del Toro) over hear a surrogate mother (Juliette Lewis) is getting $1 million for carrying the baby to full term and they decide to kidnap her not knowing who the surrogate parents are.

There's way more going on here than I care to get into or I'd dull the experience of this movie for you. Just know that this was the next movie written by Academy Award winning screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie, who won an Oscar for the movie he wrote before this one, The Usual Suspects. If you found yourself confused by the earlier film's plot, don't even bother looking at WotG. Alliances are broken almost as quickly as they are formed in this movie. Instead of a 'reminds me of...', I'll do you one better this time: this movie is almost a hommage to another movie called "____ _______ And ___ ________ ___", the too nameless protagonists/antagonists actually refer to themselves in the former pair's real names.

That's it... for that pick anyway.

The other Bizzee Pick that made it's way into this post, I won't actually review here or go into more detail about this movie. I just felt like adding this movie to this list because I've talked about it so often these past few weeks, I take that as a sign that this was meant for me to write about it.

A super-hero murder mystery. #5WordFilmPlots pic.twitter.com/wD0GrcOTiF
— Smokkee G Singleton (@MrGBIZ) April 30, 2015

And I have already. I'll address the source material eventually but just know that although it's a graphic novel (ok, comic book!), it's number 227 on the essential reading list "1,001 Books to Read Before You Die".

NOW, that's it. Catch you next post.. in about an hour.

Smokkee

U is for Ultron (#AtoZChallenge)

2015-04-27T14:20:00.001-07:00

This will probably be the last thing I post about 'Avengers: Age of Ultron' before I go see it the movie when it comes out this weekend. Probably. No guarantees.

I can't think of any other movie I was this excited about seeing. 'Watchmen' might have came close but I didn't get all Trekkie-over-'Star Trek' about it. This movie isn't even a movie anymore. It's an event that must be experienced. I know from experience. That experience was the first Avenger film experience.

I'm grown but I felt like the world's oldest teenager when Hulk beat up Loki in the first film. To me, that scene is up there with the other great fight scenes from other movie events like Neo fighting multiple copies of Agent Smith and Luke fighting Darth Vader (both fights). Those movies transcended traditional films to me but I'm sure I can't be the only person who compares every major action movie or whatever to the classics like these three films.

I also have a feeling I'll be experiencing a bit more deja vu with this film. We already know where this movie leads to, kind of like knowing where 'Matrix: Reloaded' was leading to. I didn't think 'The Matrix' was going to be as good as it was when it came out. I'll gladly admit I was wrong about that and I'll openly admit I was wrong thinking that as good as the first film was, the sequel would also suck.

What's next after Ultron? Well, it might be the same as before Ultron. The next episode of the TV show, 'Marvel's Agents of SHIELD', is already slated as being the event that leads directly into Age of Ultron. If that's not enough to get you to watch the show, just know that if the final episodes of the season do not deal directly with the aftermath of AoU, they at least set the scene for what's next to come in the MCU. it's just too bad I'm gonna catch it after the fact. I got my first Chicago CUBS game of the season to attend. Thankfully, I do have Hulu Plus.

Later WORLD.
Smokkee

T is for Transsiberian (#AtoZChallenge)

2015-04-27T13:34:00.002-07:00

Confession time. As much as I love the movies that make my list, sometimes I really hate writing #BizzeePick reviews. Never has this been more true than for trying to write a review for Transsiberian. There's not much I can tell you about anything without taking something away from the experience of this movie in the first place. The reason I love these movies so much are also the reason these movies are so hard to review.

I seriously can't tell you anything about this movie Transsiberian without giving too much away. I got to start with a 'reminds me of' since there's not much I can tell you. There's another movie about a traveling couple, a few traveling couples actually, called 'A Perfect Getaway' with Timothy Olyphant and Steve Zahn. This movie kind of puts me in the mind of that movie but it's much better executed. The twist isn't that cheesy either.

Carlos showing a lil something to Jessi

Now to the movie itself. The couple here, Roy and Jessi (Woody Harrelson and Emily Mortimer) are taking a cross continental
train between Asia and Europe. They meet a fellow traveler named Carlos and his girlfriend. Then things get thrown through a loop when an officer looking for smugglers (Ben Kingsley, as menacing as ever) appears.

OK. Everybody in this movie is excellent for starters. Secondly, this movie completely sucker punches you with the developments that happen on screen. None of what happens is unnatural, forced. Every character's decision, as rash as it may be at times, makes sense. Not many movies can claim that.

Not many straightforward movies like this, one that's completely understood in one take, gives you this much food for thought after the first feeding. A second helping isn't necessary but it goes down just as well as the first screening. Again, how many movies can say that?

This #BizzeePick can.

Later, WORLD.

Smokkee

S is for Songs In The Key Of My Life (#AtoZChallenge)

2015-04-27T12:46:00.003-07:00

Everybody would describe life as one thing or another. The way I describe life is everybody's life is like a movie that only they see. That's how I view mine. Starring me, lol. Well, most movies have soundtracks. Mine is no different. This post is basically what 'Smokkee: the Movie's soundtrack would be. These are the songs that are huge in my life for some reason or another.

The entire 2 disc set of Stevie Wonder's Songs In The Key Of Life:

First off, let me explain this: I grew up listening to Lionel Richie, Marvin Gaye, of course Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson, all thanks to my moms Jeanette Singleton (who became Jeanette Thomas after her marriage). Every Friday she would play songs like GQ's 'Disco Nights' would play for as long as I could remember. It was our way of winding down from our long week's work.

Of course you knew Stevie's award winning album would somehow make it's way into this post. The post's title paying homage was a clue that's too obvious to be ignored. The thing about this album is every song on both of these discs has been my favorite at some point in my life and songs like 'Ordinary Pain', 'Ngiculela-Es Una Historia - I Am Singing' and 'As' never leave out of my music rotation.

Commodores: Zoom

This song is a constant reminder to me that not only is it cool to let the mind wander and think of how this world can be a better place, especially when you're surrounded by nothing but turmoil and chaos, sometimes, this thinking is a necessity. That's what I get from this song. Of course, every student learns a different lesson.

Randy Crawford: Give Me The Night

One of the first neo-jazz songs that I fell in love with. It's also a blueprint of my 20's.

Creative Source: I'd Find You Anywhere

Audio Two: What More Can I Say

The first cassette tape I could ever say that was mine and mine alone.

Prince "Purple Rain"
Lynard Skynard: Freebird
Rolling Stones: Sympathy For The Devil
Pink Floyd "Wish You Were Here"

When I first got into music videos on MTV, the most dominant music was rock n roll and Michael Jackson. They would play hard rock, soft rock, soft rock, Mike, hard rock, Michael, etc. If you remember the time (bad pun, I know), then you know I ain't lying. It didn't get rock n roll at first. I didn't really get rock really until Purple Rain, the movie and the album, and then it clicked. When it did, Lynard Skynard's Freebird became my unofficial official theme song, the Stone's Sympathy For The Devil become my mantra, and Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here" became my favorite rock album not named "Purple Rain".

Isaac Hayes: No Name Bar (From the "Shaft" soundtrack),
N.W.A.: Straight Outta Compton,
The D.O.C.: No One Can Do It Better,
2Pac: 2Pacalypse Now,

"Who is the man..?" Everybody knows Hayes' theme for Shaft but the song that I most relate to is this instrumental. I loved this beat when it was sampled by Dr Dre for the D.O.C. for the aptly titled "The D.O.C. and the Doctor" on his debut album 'No One Can Do It Better' but I didn't research the origin of the beat until I heard 2Pac use it for "A Soldier's Story" from his first (and best IMO) album '2Pacalypse Now'. These 2 hip hop albums are completely different but both made me love hip hop more than ever. If you ask me, the album that stood out as the best around that time frame was NWA's Straight Outta Compton, the first hip hop album I felt wasn't afraid to tell it like it is. Honarable mention should go out to Slick Rick's "The Further Adventures Of Slick Rick" and Eric B and Rakim's "Paid In Full" for cementing my love for hip hop like no album before them but these 3 albums I named above made me think that even I could be a rapper, something most inner city kid these days believe anyway. "Straight Outta Compton" told a story that I was seeing at that time, and one that I would eventually experience personally a few years later, on a level Ice T reached a few years prior to this album's release. I think the fact that NWA was only a few years older than me had a great effect on me too. They did this. I can do this too.

Boys II Men "CooleyHighHarmony"
Jodeci "Forever My Lady"
Mint Condition: "From The Mint Factory"

The first few slow cuts albums I could claim for myself. I found these albums all on my own while my moms was still bumping Heatwave, Stephanie Mills, etc. Of course I still loved here music; she just couldn't get into too much of these albums, though she would later tell me Boyz II Men's "II" album was pretty good. These albums were what I listened to my first year at Hyde Park Career Academy and I'm glad to say that 20 years later, these albums still hold up.

Nas: "Illmatic"
Common Sense: "Can I Borrow A Dollar?" / "Resurrection"
Psychodrama / Twista / Do Or Die / Crucial Conflict

Those 2 albums are standouts from the early 90's for me because they are the reasons I expanded my flow beyond gangster rap. Nas and Wu Tang Clan's "Enter The 36th Chambers" And Common Sense, who would become much more famous after dropping Sense from his name, made me believe I really could become a rapper since he was not only from Chicago but from a 'hood not to far from me. They were conscience rappers that had me wanting to go the conscience route. A few years later, other Chicago acts like Psychodrama and Crucial Conflict gave me a sense of pride since they were blowing up on various levels. I had never been prouder of Chicago hip hop than when these acts along with Do Or Die and Twista had the whole city on their shoulders for a time being.

Nowadays, hip hop acts like J Cole, Kendrick Lamar, Chance the Rapper, Childish Gambino keep my ear since I've become almost exclusively a fan of conscience hip hop. And while I got love for Bruno Mars, Chris Brown, Miguel, etc., they don't hold the same sway over me that the old school crooners do. Nonetheless, if I was asked to list the most influential music of my lifetime, this list would be as good as you got.

Later, WORLD.

Smokkee

R is for 'Resolution' (a #BizzeePick) (#AtoZChallenge)

2015-04-23T14:32:00.000-07:00

Hello, WORLD! Smokkee here adding another movie to my favorite movie list, which I affectionately call my Bizzee Picks. Typically, the types of movies I add to this list are ones I'm more than sure most of yall haven't seen before, which is a travesty to me since these are some of the best movies of whatever genre they are a part of. Usually, that genre is horror and this post isn't an exception so to speak but it's not your typical horror movie either. There's no violent images, none of those cheesy, overused horror tropes like jump out scares, or those false scares started by amped up music letting you know something horrible is coming... and then the horror never shows.

Wait, there is one that is used, a fairly common one at that. In fact, this movie puts me in the mind of another fairly recent horror movie that not only uses the same overused horror movie trope, it's named after it. And then they skewer it in ways that make them both stand out. The biggest difference between these two movies is the other is ultra gory for skewering purposes and this movie isn't, presumably for the exact same reason.

Chris (left) and Mike having a heart to heart talk in 'Resolution'

Another movie it reminds me of, another Bizzee Pick at that.. but not a horror movie, is Storytelling. They are both essentially addressing the same subject matter, with equally shocking results. Now that I think about it, maybe Storytelling is a horror movie flick after all... It also doesn't have any violence, unless you count THAT infamous sex scene, but it does leave you feeling some type of way. As does this movie. Both movies even have almost the same line of dialogue about beginnings, middles, and ends...

Intrigued, yet? No? let me continue then.

The film I'm adding today is 2012's Resolution, written by Justin Benson and directed by Benson and Aaron Moorhead. You're probably familiar with this pair's last offering, 2014's genre defying movie Spring, or their high energy segment in the last movie in the horror anthology V/H/S franchise ('V/H/S Viral') called 'Bonestorm'. If you remember the scene with the skateboarders, you don't even have to go back and watch it to know which one was theirs. While both of those are excellent, Resolution is my favorite work by this pair so far and got me eager for more.

The plot is fairly simple. A married man named Michael receives an email of his buddy Chris alone in some forest with some dog doing cocaine, talking to himself, just acting like he's losing his mind. Michael (played kind of stiffly, probably by design, by Peter Cilella) does what he feels is the right thing by leaving his pregnant wife for a week to try to convince Chris (a hilarious performance by Vinny Curran) to go to rehab. Mike didn't set out to leave his wife for a week's time, I'm sure, but it winds up being that long after he fails to get Chris to enter rehab and decides he'll just handcuff Chris to the wall of the house that Chris is residing in until he decides to give rehab a try. Wait, did I say it was house? I meant to say 'cabin in the woods' Chris is residing in at the time.

You see where this is going, right?

Wrong. Absolutely wrong. One common thread that Bizzee Picks have in common is you can't look at the beginning of one and say "Oh, I know exactly where this is heading." I very rarely even like movies like that to begin with. I won't stop you from thinking you will but no, you won't. You won't even have a clue.

A few things I should mention before I go in further and this is about as close as I get to revealing any spoilers. For starters, the freewheeling Chris didn't actually buy the drugs he was using; he doesn't seem to have any money nor any ambition towards getting any money. "I'm a junkie." he says at one point with as much pride in his voice as a newborn's father saying "It's a boy."

Bryon (Bill Oberst) creeping out Mike.

The drugs were given to Chris by some mutual friends of Chris and Mike and it's implied that they are really bad guys now, something Mike isn't aware of since he hasn't seen them in quite some time. Also, that cabin in the woods they're in? It's not his either and on top of that, it's on an Indian reservation and the tribe's spokesman Charles (Zahn McClarnon) isn't too fond of these guys being here without the tribe's OK. Mike bribes him to let them stay for few more days but if he had any sense, he would have left, especially after the dog is brutally killed by either by the Mike's former friends or by Charles and the tribe.

The most disturbing detail I'll give you is the fact that Chris didn't actually send Mike any email to begin with....

The plot basically juggles these tidbits over and over again for the first 45 minutes or so, forcing you to accept these as truths first and then daring you to see where this goes. And then it goes elsewhere. You see it early on in bits and pieces but it really starts to get surreal when Mike, right after the dog is murdered, tracks down the dog's real owner Byron (Bill Oberst Jr, who might not be a household name yet but is well known to Internet users as the guy who creeps you out in this video here) and gets seriously creeped out by this guy too when Byron tries to explain what happened to some French guys who were in the area working on something.

Chris and Mike beginning to notice something isn't right in these woods..

This scene is like the Silencio scene from Mulholland Drive because it's the scene that divides the slow burning first half of the movie from the faster paced second half. Byron's theory regarding what's really going on just might be fairly accurate. After we get past this scene things start happening really fast and this movie moves from a buddy flick to something a lot more surreal. And just when you think our guys are finally clear of the insanity, the ending reveals itself to be one hell of a gut punch.

I won't say nothing else about this movie except if you're a fan cerebral movies or horror movies, this movie is for you. You'll definitely be thinking about it for a while after it ends. What else do you need to hear from me? Just

watch it. Trust me. You'll like it.

Later, WORLD.
Smokkee Singleton

O is for 'One More Day' (#AtoZChallenge)

2015-04-21T15:58:00.000-07:00

Hello, WORLD!! Smokkee here, still playing catch up in this A to Z blogging Challenge. This post was supposed to be posted last Friday, I believe. And I'm still talking about Marvel Comics but not the MCU this time. I'm talking about one of the most controversial story-lines the company ever put out. One More Day.

Meet Mephisto.

One More Day is a Spider Man story unlike any other Spidey story ever. You see, Spider Man does something completely selfish here. Thanks to the events of 'Civil War', the whole world knows Spidey is Peter Parker, including his enemies. His enemies target his loved ones, his wife Mary Jane and his beloved Aunt May. Some hitmen hired by Carlton Fisk / the Kingpin manage to shoot and critically wound Aunt May. She's dying. There's nothing that can be done for her. At least that's what Dr Strange tells him. He finds help in the most unlike ally.

Enter Mephisto. Depending on who you're asking, he's either a demon or Marvel's version of the devil. He tells Peter he will save Aunt May for one small request. I know what you're thinking: his soul. No. Well, yeah. Mephisto only wants his marriage to Mary Jane. He doesn't want to marry her. He wants to wipe out the marriage from ever existing.

Do you get the uproar over this story line now? It just doesn't fit in with his character at all. The most never-give-up super hero who faces, and beats, more unbeatable odds than any other hero, sells his marriage to the devil to save his Aunt May. That isn't very Spidey like, is it? The reason is Joe Quesada, one of Marvel's editors in chief, felt like dissolving the marriage would open the doors for better Spider Man stories in the future. No argument there. Most of my favorite Spidey stories are the newer wants penned by Dan Slott. Conversely, most of the hated Spider Man stories (Clone Saga comes to mind) happened during the marriage. That's not why most comic book fans hate the storyline. It's hated because it's resolved by having Spider-Man doing something Spider-Man simply would not do. It's like, say, Superman deciding to kill Zod before he kills somebody else instead of trying to find another way to stop him or something...

Whatever.

I like the story, actually. I didn't get upset with it personally but I get why a lot of people did. I also get why people didn't like the last Superman reboot for making Supes a murderer but they should just hate the movie cause it wasn't really that good, truth be told. Killing Zod at least gave me something to talk about, something the rest of the movie didn't do.

At least Marvel is trying to correct their mistake, somewhat. This is do out this summer as part of the Secret Wars event.

Now I wonder how all of this ties into the MCU.

Later, WORLD.

Smokkee Singleton

N IS FOR 'NO MORE MUTANTS' (#AtoZChallenge)

2015-04-21T14:12:00.002-07:00

Hello, WORLD!! Smokkee here, again, talking about the MCU, again. You knew I would be. We're less than two weeks away from 'Age of Ultron', and I'm still high off that 13 episode rush Netflix provides called 'Daredevil'. So it's safe to say yes, Marvel's Cinematic Universe is still on my brain. Actually, make that Marvel in general since I've reverted back to reading comics again, a habit I thought I kicked for good more than a decade ago. OK, so I've had a few relapses here and there but I thought I was done with them for the most part.

I'm glad I wasn't. I saw some interesting things happening in the comics that just might make there way to the big screen or, if nothing else, might affect what happens in the MCU in the next few phases. For instance, the next Captain America standalone film is called 'Civil War'. I thought the Avengers 2 would be where this storyline made the leap from the comics to the big screen. I was wrong about when it would make that jump but I correctly guessed right here it was coming, eventually.

Amazing Spider Man #698

Now I got another prediction for you. This one starts with the death of one of Marvel's biggest names: Spider-Man. He 'dies' in Amazing Spider Man's 700 issue. They 'killed' arguably their most famous character right in between both of the Marc Webb-helmed Amazing Spider Man films.

OK, maybe 'dies' isn't the word to use. It wasn't like they completely 'killed' Spider Man; the 'Dying Wish' storyline had a dying Doctor Octopus finally get the best of Spider Man by switching bodies with him right before he died. Over the course of the next year (the time between the releases of ASM movies 1 and 2) we saw Ock trying his best to be a better Spider Man than Peter Parker ever was, with Marvel even replacing the Amazing Spider Man title with the name Ock was calling himself: the Superior Spider Man.

Of course the real Peter Parker came back eventually, just in time to save Ock, one of Spider Man's

The look on Gobby's face when he realizes the real Spider Man is back: priceless.

arch enemies, from defeat at the hands of Peter's main arch nemesis, Green Goblin. More accurately, he came back in time for him to be Spider Man when ASM 2 was released, but that's not the point. It should be noted that the ASM films aren't part of the MCU (at least not yet). The right to use Spider Man in film was licensed by Marvel to Sony Pictures at that time. I think that's the real reason Marvel killed him off in the first place because now Spidey is now cleared to be a part of the MCU thanks to this deal between Marvel and Sony Pictures.

The only reason I brought any of that up is not too long after that, Marvel killed off another insanely popular character. And this character is one we thought was almost unkillable. And this character is DEAD dead for sure, having died via suffocation. And this one hasn't came back yet even though I doubt he's gone for ever but at least we get to see Hugh Jackman play him a few more times in the future if he is.

Yep. RIP, Wolverine.

Now, it should be noted here that Wolverine and his fellow X-Men characters are also licensed out by Marvel, as was Spidey to Sony Pictures, to 20th Century Fox. 20th Century Fox also owns the rights to the cinematic version of Marvel's other well known superhero team, the Fantastic Four. The Fantastic Four is one of Marvel's longest running properties and they have a movie due out as well, the trailer for the movie was just released yesterday.

So what does Marvel Comics do to help promote this new film for one of their longest running properties? They canceled the whole Fantastic Four comic book series! It's slated to end this month at issue 645. Why? probably the same reason why they killed Wolverine and possibly Spider Man. To eventually get the film rights to these properties back. Based on all of these happenings, I'm willing to bet Marvel's next course of action most likely can be summed up to these three words.

"No more mutants."
That was uttered by none other than the Scarlett Witch, a mutant herself, at the end of Marvel Comic's 2005 company wide crossover event, 'House of M'. 'HoM' led to the 'Decimation' which seen almost 90% of the mutants in Marvel Comics lose their power. 'HoM' followed the 'Avengers Disassembled' storyline. 'AD' basically focused on the Avengers being manipulated by events caused by the Scarlett Witch's hexing ability and winds up being the reason the Avengers disband for a short while. 'AD's main characters besides the more popular Avengers were the Scarlet Witch (who causes the events), Dr Strange (who figured out who was behind these events), Vision and a bunch of versions of a villain named Ultron. With Scarlett Witch, Ultron, and the Vision set to appear in Age of Ultron and Dr Strange slated to have his own film in MCU's Phase 3, notice that most of these characters are now set to debut in the MCU in the near future.

You see the problem with the MCU using that storyline right now?

Since nobody has seen AoU yet, who's to say that it doesn't follow the Avengers Disassembled storyline? There was a company wide cross over event called Age of Ultron but I doubt seriously that this is the basis for the MCU film because it's biggest characters, the ones who have the most impact on the story, are Hank Pym (who'll debut in Ant Man, the last film of MCU's Phase 2), FF's Sue Richards, and multiple versions of X-Men's Wolverine.

In the comics, the Avengers Disassembled storyline led directly into some of the best storylines Marvel has put out in recent times like the aforementioned 'Decimation', 'Secret Invasion', 'Planet Hulk', 'Dark Reign', and ended with the beginning of Marvel's Heroic Age. Another storyline from this period is the one that stands out for obvious reasons: 'Civil War'. In fact, 'Disassembled' almost directly leads into Civil War the same way were being told the MCU's AoU leads into the MCU's version of Civil War.

Which brings me to Phase 3's movie lineup. Dr Strange is slated to be the second of the Phase 3 films, which are kicked off with Civil War. You know what the last film in Phase 3 is slated to be? Inhumans. Now if you ask me why this is huge news, it's because the Inhumans are being set up in the comics as the replacement for mutants. No more mutants, remember? The only difference between mutants, whose film rights are owned by 20th Century Fox, and the mutants are the fact that mutants are born with there abilities while Inhumans are just humans who've been exposed to this stuff called Terrigan Mist which gives them basically the same abilities mutants have. And they are NOT licensed to 20th Century Fox. And we're meeting them right now too. Remember this scene from Marvel's Agents of SHIELD second season episode aptly titled 'What They Become':

That's the same Skye we met in the first season but now she has powers thanks to that mist. She has since ran across more Inhumans, all with various powers. Bottom line is right now is a great time for Inhumans but it isn't a good time to be a mutant in Marvel Comics and it'll probably be like this until Marvel gets those movie rights back...

If Marvel being willing to cancel one of their most popular and longest running books, as well as kill off one of their most popular characters, and are now trying to push these Inhumans as their next big thing, aren't all connected to who currently owns which movie rights, then I have no idea what's going on. Marvel's comics are all gearing up for this year's company wide story arch 'Secret Wars' as we speak. The biggest news that I've heard about this upcoming event so far are of Spider Man's One More Day storyline getting amended (FINALLY!!) and of the X Men being sent to a whole new world of their own, which Marvel is backtracking on as we speak.

Whatever, Marvel. As long as they continue to tell great stories, both in comics and in film, us fans won't care one bit. Wait, yes we do. You'll see how much we care in my next post, which just wrote itself since I'm sure you don't know what One More Day is or how ridiculous it is or even how it's a huge slap in the face to most Spider Man fans.

BRB. I promise.

Smokkee Singleton

K is For Kidnapped (A #Bizzee Pick) (#AtoZChallenge)

2015-04-15T13:08:00.001-07:00

Hello, WORLD!! Smokkee here. And I'm adding a movie to my Bizzee Picks list today! I can't think of the last time I did that but whatever. We're adding one now.

The movie I'm adding to my list today is Secuestrados (2010, released with English subtitles as Kidnapped even though secuestrados roughly translates into abducted), a Spanish movie about a family terrorized by a group of three men who break into the home of a married couple and hold them as well as their daughter and her boyfriend, who came over to pick up the teenager for a date of some sorts, hostage. The criminal's plan is to take the father to various ATMs around their city and get the maximum amount of money that each of the ATMs allow out. One of the bad guys accompanies the papa while the other two stays at home with the hostages, ready to shoot said hostages if a phone call from papa's kidnapper says papa deviated from the plan in any way.

That's all the plot info I'm gonna give you but I will add a few more tidbits as usual. I don't know what it is with me and films that end on the bleakest notes possible. If you've seen Funny Games, either the American version or the original, you know exactly what I mean by bleak. Funny Games had one of the bleakest endings I've ever ran across. Well, this movie sees that bleakness and raises it up a notch. Even with this somewhat mild spoiler, you have no idea where this movie goes. Another movie this puts me in the mind of is one of the best French horror movies I've ever seen, Inside because most of the action takes place within the house. Mostly though, this movie's atmosphere and tenseness throughout the film reminds me of Alfred Hitchcock's Rope. A lot of stuff doesn't happen early on in the film but you'll feel like something is ABOUT to happen throughout the movie. You know violence is coming. You're just not gonna be ready for it when it arrives.

Let me know how you enjoyed (or hated) this movie if you see it based on my thumbs up and just in case my thumbs up ain't enough, check out this trailer below.

Later, WORLD.

Smokkee Singleton

J is for Just Binge! (#AtoZChallenge)

2015-04-15T13:08:00.000-07:00

Hello, WORLD!! Smokkee here. Yeah I know. The J post of the A to Z Challenge was supposed to be wrote this past Saturday. My bad. I was preoccupied with Daredevil, a new Netflix show I just knew I was going to binge watch, which I did. I thoroughly enjoyed it's dark tone. It certainly helped the show feel more like a Daredevil comic at times. My only complaint about the show itself is that Bullseye was a no-show on it. I just knew one of Daredevils biggest adversaries would make at least one appearance but I was wrong. Luckily he wasn't missed. Wilson Fisk was more than adequate as season 1's main villain and I'm sure we'll see Bullseye in season 2.

That was my only complaint about the show itself. My other complaint is that now I feel like binge watching something else... but what though? We're still months away from the next Netflix exclusive Marvel TV show AKA Jessica Jones and the show after that, Luke Cage, isn't slated to appear until 2016.

I got an idea of which series I'm going to watch. Here's a few of my favorite series you can catch in their entirety on Netflix as well as 8 shows that I haven't started yet but I might start soon based on all the good things I've been hearing about them.

First, some of my favorites:

Breaking Bad

    This show isn't too complicated to describe partially because I know you've seen it. Who hasn't at this point? Just in case you missed because you just came back from another universe, it's about a high school teacher who discovers he has cancer and how he comes to terms with his impending demise basically. I could leave it at that but I don't feel like I'd be doing the show any justice. See, I
forgot to mention that he taught chemistry and in an effort to ensure his family doesn't struggle financially after he dies, he eventually uses that extensive chemistry knowledge to start cooking crystal meth. The stellar cast, including Bryan Cranston and his Emmy Award winning performance as the teacher turned drug dealer Walter White, takes this abnormal concept and makes it completely believable.

The Walking Dead

Here's another series I shouldn't have to describe to you but if I need to it's about a group of people who are struggling to coexist in there crazy world. Oh, and there's also zombies they have to contend with as well but the biggest threat to the survivors are themselves.

Orange Is The New Black

THIS is the show that had me break down and get Netflix in the first place. An engaged woman's past comes back to haunt her in the worst way: thanks to her girlfriend-at-that-time's drug dealing participation, they wind up in prison. Almost everyone involved in this show shines and it's one show were the star (Taylor Schilling as the new convict Piper Chapman) takes a backseat to almost the entire supporting cast.

American Horror Story

This is a horror anthology series. So far they all have starred Jessica Lange, Sarah Paulson, Frances Conroy and Evan Peters in various roles. Each of the first four seasons has tackled a different story including ghosts, insane asylums, witch's covens, and circus freaks respectively. While each season works on it's own as a standalone series, the best reason I'd rewatch each of them is to find out how each of these season are all connected as the show runners have stated.

Daredevil

    It's Daredevil and it completely gets rid of the bad taste in your mouth that the Ben Affleck / Jennifer Garner adaptation surely left. Oh, and according to this article on Netflix's Daredevil, my only complaint about the show is invalid. Bullseye DID make an appearance. I just didn't catch it or a lot of other Marvel tidbits.

Marvel Agents Of SHIELD

    Since I'm on the subject... Marvel's Cinematic Universe is now one of the best film series of this decade and hopefully the three Netflix shows set to debut after Daredevil are just as good as DD. Now before DD there was two other MCU shows to catch. One was Agent Carter (which I believe is now on Hulu Plus in it's entirety) which took place during Captain America's cinematic origin and revolved around Agent Peggy Carter, who most likely would have been Mrs Captain America had he not turned into a popsicle. Fans also got to meet Howard Stark again and the real Jarvis for the first time in this series too. This show came out after Agents of SHIELD found it's footing. If you're not familiar with this show it revolves around the recently deceased SHIELD Agent Phil Coulson, the very same guy who was killed by Loki in the 1st Avenger movie, and how he managed to come back from the dead. It's way deeper than that and it seems to have HUGE implications on the future of the MCU. It's only right it returns the favor; Thor: The Dark World and especially Captain America: The Winter Soldier had just as huge an impact on this show. While season 2 is currently only on Hulu, you can catch season 1 on Netflix.

And as far as shows I haven't watched yet:

Justified

I'm ashamed to say I've never caught any of this series and I have no valid reason for not doing so already. For starters, it stars the always reliable Timothy Olyphant as a US Marshal named Raylan Givens. Raylan is a character from one of my favorite books, Pronto, written by one of my top five

favorite authors of all time, Elmore Leonard. If you've seen Get Shorty, Out Of Sight, or Jackie Brown, you're familiar with Leonard's work already but trust me find the books if you really want to do Leonard any justice. I'm sure all but the last and final season are on Netflix and the last season may be uploaded by the fall since the final episode aired yesterday.


House Of Cards.

I've heard about this show every since it's inception. It's been Emmy nominiated. And it stars Kevin Spacey! Yet, I haven't had time to watch it yet. Or maybe it's the fact that I find politics
, both real life and fictional, extremely boring. Regardless, I'll still get around to watching this show soon.

Archer

OK. I gotta admit I've seen a lot of Archer but with all that's going on, not to mention all of the
episodes I've missed, I think I better start again from the beginning. It's one of the best spy shows on TV not titled Agents Of SHIELD. Just don't hold the facts that it's a comedy and it's animated against it.

Broadchurch

    I fell in love with Fox's 10 episode murder mystery series Gracepoint from the start. At least I thought I did. What I didn't know was Gracepoint is an almost shot for shot remake of this BBC series. I love the remake but I'm more than just a bit curious about the original since most remakes fail to live up to the source material.

Black Mirror

    I've only recently discovered this anthology series in the vein of The Twilight Zone. If you're a fan of those type of shows, this show will make a great addition to your must-watch list.

Twin Peaks
Like Archer, I've seen a lot of these episodes. Unlike Archer, I was extremely young when I saw them so a lot of the going ons left me a bit perplexed. I loved how creepy a watch it was though and it's about time I brush up on this show anyway, since a new Twin Peaks series is already in the works.

Sons Of Anarachy
If you ask anybody what is the best TV show of the past 10-15 years, you'll hear either Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, Walking Dead, The Wire, or this show more often than not. Of these five series, SOA is the only one I haven't gotten addict to yet. I may be the only person on the planet who hasn't but I have yet to see this show about a motorcycle gang and the obstacles they face.

Well, that's it for this post. If you don't hear from me for a while, you already know what I'm up to.

Later WORLD.
Smokkee Singleton

H is for Heroes (#AtoZChallenge)

2015-04-09T13:25:00.000-07:00

Hello WORLD!! Smokkee here, naturally. Heroes is actually too broad a summary for this post. I'm not touching on any of the comic books-to-movies/TV shows DC are currently putting out and I'm not addressing the return of the NBC TV show of the same name.

I really wanted to post this post as my M post as 'M is for MCU' for the A to Z blogging Challenge but I just couldn't wait. I'm too excited! I'm glad it's Thursday but I'm really looking forward to this upcoming Friday.
It's been a somewhat long week but that's not why I'm excited, well, not entirely. Tomorrow, Netflix debuts it's Daredevil series set in Marvel's Cinematic Universe or MCU for short. Thankfully, we're less than 24 hours away now. I was excited about this when I first heard about it, but the more info I hear about it, the more I can't wait.

I'd love to see how Daredevil will connect to it's other MCU properties like Agent Carter and Marvel's Agents of SHIELD even though a little bit of info has leaked about the Agents of SHIELD and Daredevil connection already. And I'm wondering if this article on how Daredevil will change the MCU is as accurate as this article touching on the same topic regarding how Agent Carter changed the MCU was. Plus we know this is only the beginning of the MCU on Netflix. Hereos for Hire teammates Iron Fist and Luke Cage (aka Power Man), and Jessica Jones (aka Mrs Luke Cage in the comic books) are all slated to have Netflix shows in the near future so if Daredevil works half as well as expected, we may see more MCU shows soon. I've read an article about a show based on the Punisher, who has yet to be done right in his previous cinematic portrayals. Ghost Rider too; even though I feel Nicholas Cage was surprisingly adequate as Johnny Blaze I'd sure like to see a version of this character that's closer to it's comic book counterpart.

With that said, even as good as I expected DD to be, I doubt it'll become my new favorite MCU show. Agents Of Shield already has that title on lock and today, news just broke that this show will be getting a spinoff! It's the first show that had the MCU brand on it and while it might have started off sluggish, it sure knew how to pick up speed big time. I was interested in how they would bring Agent Phil Coulson back into the MCU since he was killed in The Avengers (I should have said spoiler alert but let's be honest: who hasn't seen The Avengers at this point? Find me somebody. Go ahead. I'll wait.) and this show thrived off of that mystery at first but the pacing was a turn off to most people.

Skye becomes Inhuman-ly powerful.

Which was a shame because those who stayed loyal to this show were rewarded with a great reason to rewatch the first season because apparently we'd missed a ton of obvious clues as far as where the show was heading. The second film in the Captain America film series, The Winter Soldier, was released in conjunction with this TV show midway through season 1 and it changed the whole dynamic of the show big time since (I won't spoil it for the people who have not seen CA: TWS but if you really want to know, click this link right here).

Since that moment, the rest of season 1 and the entirety of season 2 so far has had it's foot to the pedal in terms of action and developments. I can't think of any moment from a network TV show that was as huge as the one from season 2 featuring Agent Skye breaking out of a cocoon. Her transformation marks the first appearance of the Inhumans in the MCU. To make that tidbit even more interesting, besides a possibility that the spin off might be focused on the Inhumans, we KNOW for sure that the Inhumans have a MCU feature film due out as well and if this article is to be believed, this may happen sooner than expected.

I've got one more post I wanted to post for my H post so I'm gonna cut this short right here. I jsut wonder if The Avengers: Age of Ultron will have a scene as powerful as the one up above. If not, I hope that Hulk Vs Iron Man is at least as entertaining as the best fight scene in the whole series so far..

On second thought, maybe I'm more excited about tomorrow because it puts me one day closer to 05/01/15. I'm ready for Ultron and I'm sure I'm not alone.

Later WORLD.

Smokkee Singleton

E is for Excitement (#AtoZChallenge)

2015-04-07T11:57:00.001-07:00

Hello, WORLD! Smokkee here, once again. Once again, I can't think of an excellent E post for this A to Z Blogging Challenge so I turned back to my movie and more review blog hoping some idea would come to me.

The only thing I can think of is excitement.

Well, I am actually excited right now for a few upcoming entertainment events. For this blog post, I'll just list my top 5 reasons for excitement:

5.) I'm FINALLY going to see 'It Follows' this weekend. I've been putting it off for the past 2 weeks and I can';t wait any longer. If you have no idea what that is, watch this trailer ASAP!!

4.) Another horror movie I'm looking forward to seeing just released it's first trailer. As much as I loved the first movie, Sinister 2 looks like it's gonna be at least as good as the first one, maybe even scarier and if so, I'm fine with that.

4.) Daredevil is due on Netflix this Friday April 10, 2015. If you're a fan of Marvel's Cinematic Universe, this is a must watch series. And if not, watch this trailer and tell me you're still not interested.

2.) Speaking about the MCU, this is right around the corner:

1) And lastly, the day after Age of Ultron premiers on 05/01/15, this happens.

I see me consuming a lot of popcorn in the near future. You already know I'm looking forward to it.

Later, WORLD!
Smokkee Singleton

A TO Z CHALLENGE

2015-04-01T14:12:00.002-07:00

Hello WORLD!!!

I'm baaaaaack. Maybe for a limited time (for now), maybe not. I have been meaning to work on this blog, well, any of my blogs but I haven't seemed to been able to do so. Its not that I haven't had anything to blog about or I'm tired of writing. I'll admit I haven't been doing too much of anything with this blog in particular lately partially due to a lack of movies even worth writing about (2014 was overpopulated with flat out horrible to sub-par movies) but also due to the fact that I've still been working on my first book, which admittedly is taking me way longer to finish than I thought it would. I'm still churning away at it. I've invested a lot of time in my characters to not see their stories through to the end. (OAN: I'm anxious to know what happens to them myself. I never thought I, as a writer, would be to keep me, as a reader, in suspense when I typically invented them and their worlds. I find that to be a pleasant surprise, one I surely didn't think was possible.)

Before I go any further here, I need to tell you a few things. One is this won't be a movie review post. I know a few movies I'd love to write a review for but all of that is coming in due time. Secondly, let me tell you what drew me back to working on my blog at this time.

I logged onto Twitter this morning and the first trending topic that caught my eye was #AtoZChallenge. If you know me you know I'm like a moth to a light bulb when it comes to challenges so I had to look into it. Based on the info I found here, it's a challenge for all bloggers to right a blog post for every letter of the alphabet, one a day every day this month except Sunday. 26 days for 26 letters of the alphabet.

So with the basic description out of the way, I'll now try to fulfill my obligation for today. Just not on this blog. My A post will actually be posted on my personal blog Smokkee's WORLD Prime since I have the perfect topic for my A post already in mind. In fact, if you look here, you'll see I've already wrote it. What I want to do on here though is add a few reviews of my favorite movies (I affectionately call them Bizzee Picks) so a lot of posts in this challenge will be for movies. Some, like my H post for sure, will be about my favorite books.

26 days, 26 posts. I'm ready if you're ready, WORLD.

Smokkee

Smokkee's 2015 Oscar Picks

2015-02-20T16:01:00.000-08:00

HELLO WORLD!!!

It's been almost a year since I last posted. Took a break for damn near a year but I'm back right on time to give you my picks for 87th Annual Academy Awards ceremony. Last year, I got 9 outta 13 of the major awards right (I only failed to pick the right Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress). Anyway, on to this years picks:

BEST WRITING OSCAR: BIRDMAN

This award could easily go to GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL. Easily. There's nothing trite about a Wes Anderson's film whatsoever. Every movie he makes has his style stamped all over it but aside from that , they all feel fresh and unique. BOYHOOD and NIGHTCRAWLERS nominations are not as shocking as the nomination awarded to FOXCATCHER which is based on a true story (I'm still asking how is that original again?) but truly this award is GBH's to lose. And it will lose. From the opening shot to the ambiguous ending shot, BIRDMAN felt less scripted and more ad-libbed. Even though it had a meta-type feel to it, it truly was one of the most original movies I've seen in a while.

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: AMERICAN SNIPER
I'm not picking these winners based on which movies I liked. WHIPLASH was fantastic and probably my favorite movie out of this group but I can't see how this all-too-familiar movie can be beat out the rest of the movies on this list. THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING worked well too, possibly well enough to win this award. INHERENT VICE was OK, I guess, but it doesn't inspire me to read the source material. Ditto THE IMITATION GAME. That leaves AMERICAN SNIPER which wasn't one of my favorite flicks of the year but it did have everybody talking about.

VISUAL EFFECTS: GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY
I would give this award to X-MEN just for that Quicksilver scene alone. Not sure why the CAPTAIN AMERICA sequel was nominated but doesn't have a chance against it's MCU brethren GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY. DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES was astonishing to watch, and the apes seemed so very human. DAWN & INTERSTELLAR have the best shots at walking away with this award, but I'm almost willing to bet Marvel's heroes win again.

SOUND EFFECTS: INTERSTELLAR.
No other movie on this list begs to be seen at IMAX. The choice here is obvious.

SOUND EDITING: INTERSTELLAR.
Unless THE HOBBIT win another award for Peter Jackson here, INTERSTELLAR wins here too.

BEST MUSIC - ORIGINAL SONG: Glory from SELMA
I LOVED 'Everything is Awesome' from THE LEGO MOVIE. It was as addictive as last year's winner 'Let It Go'. It should win for sure; in fact, it's my official pick to win but I wouldn't be surprised if SELMA is rewarded this award instead. The song is great as is but it's so perfect for the movie, I almost can see it happening.

BEST DIRECTOR: Wes Anderson for GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL
Anderson is FINALLY getting his due this year.

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE: THE BOXTROLLS

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Emma Stone, BIRDMAN

Patricia Arquette's turn in BOYHOOD is the only other nomination I see with a remote chance at winning this award. Emma Stone is almost a lock for this order. BIRDMAN was a great all around movie but if there was anybody besides the star of the movie that stood out, it was Emma.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Mark Ruffalo FOXCATCHER
This year's toughest catogory. The only reason I won't mention how good Edward Norton was in BIRDMAN is he basically played Edward Norton. JK Simmons (WHIPLASH) and Robert Duvall (THE JUDGE) each upstaged the stars of their movie's (Miles Teller and Robert Downey Jr, respectively) but what Ethan Hawke did in BOYHOOD was phenomenal. The only reason I say But Mark Ruffalo's turn as Dave Shultz will beat out Hawke is I didn't even recognize him even though I knew he was in the movie!

BEST ACTRESS: Rosamund Pike GONE GIRL

Could anybody else possibly win this award? Maybe Julianne Moore but c'mon. How many Oscars does she need? Pike wins this award easy.

BEST ACTOR: Micheal Keaton BIRDMAN

This was supposed to be Micheal Keaton's comeback vehicle. Did it work? Absolutely. He's baaackkk. His only serious competition here is the oft nominated Bradley Cooper for AMERICAN SNIPER and the sort of surprising nom for Steve Carrell's turn in FOXCATCHER. As good as they were, I still feel this is Keaton's award to lose.

and finally, BEST PICTURE: BIRDMAN

When I first seen it last year, I was positive that GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL would not only get nominated but it would win. Then I fell in love with BIRDMAN and I got a change of heart. BOYHOOD, SELMA, and WHIPLASH all deserved their noms. I'm not sold on the idea of THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING or THE IMITATION GAME winning this award but both films are definitely better than the overrated AMERICAN SNIPER (yes I said it!), even with Bradley Cooper proving he can handle meatier, serious roles like he handles his comedic opportunities. But BIRDMAN is one of those rare films that works on every level it wanted to and some they didn't even know they were on. Not to mention that everybody carried their own weight (in more ways than one). A true standout film in a year of not many stand outs.

Want Funny? THE OTHER WOMAN Should Be Your First Choice.

2014-04-23T16:25:00.000-07:00

B-

Hello, WORLD!!!

Yep, Smokkee here, again, after what feels like forever, right? Every since I caught pneumonia in January, I've been waiting until the weather here in Chicago started to warm up before I started attending screenings again. Finally, it has and finally I'm back to doing what I love: watching movies on the big screen.

The first appearance of Amber (Kate Upton).

I thought I was gonna kick off my 2014 prescreening with a thud. Seriously. The plot of THE OTHER WOMAN screams made-for-TV/straight-to-DVD/standard TVsitcom plot. A man's loves (his wife, his mistress, and his OTHER mistress) find out about each other and plot revenge. Nothing new, right? While I can't think of what movie or when, I'm sure this has been done before. If I'm wrong, hit me up.


From left: Kate Upton, Cameron Diaz, and Leslie Mann


Nicki Minaj plays Carly's (Cameron Diaz) Assistant.

Anyway, this movie was refreshingly funny. Not because of the star Cameron Diaz. She's here mostly as the straight woman. (SN: It's hard to believe that this is the same woman we met 20 years ago in THE MASK but she's clearly still a master of the slapstick that made her starmaking role in THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY such a hit and still fresh faced to boot!) Here she plays Carly, a hot-shot lawyer who's falling for one of her clients, Mark (Game of Throne's Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) only to discover that he's already married in possible the most awkward way imaginable. Yep, she shows up at his home and meets his wife Kate (Leslie Mann). When Kate shows up at her job the next day, Carly lets the truth be known resulting in some of the most hilarious scenes in the movie. Through a series of misadventures the two women who should be enemies wind up being friends only to discover there is a third mistress Amber (Kate Upton) and maybe more mistresses they haven't discovered yet. After Carly's ego, in another funny scene, helps these three ladies connect, they decide to get revenge on Mark.


Taylor Kinney plays Kate's brother Phil.

As I said, the movie is funny. I laughed out loud, something I try my hardest not to do ever, and making me laugh does take a little work. It's not the funniest movie I've seen but it's adequate. The main reason you wanna watch this movie is Leslie Mann. The funniest character on the screen, she almost steals ever scene she's in from the straight-woman star of the show. And I was a little excited to see my hip-hop crush Nicki Minaj stretch her acting chops. She did her thing very well (and I'm not just saying that as one of her Stans) but wasn't in the movie nearly enough for my taste. Well OK, maybe that's just my personal opinion. The rest of the stars include Lady Gaga's boyfriend Taylor Kinney as Kate's down-to-earth brother Phil and Don Johnson makes an appearance as Carly's father Frank.

Bottom line, director Nick Cassavetes does an admirable job with a cheesy premise. It didn't overstay it's welcome, it delivered laughs, but the cheesiness of the script and the aimlessness of the plotting (At times, this comedy thinks it's a drama. Go figure.) is reason enough for me not to give it a higher grade.

That's it for now, WORLD. Thanks for having me back and letting me back into your world so easy.

Smokkee's 2014 Oscar Picks

2014-02-25T13:21:00.000-08:00

Hello, WORLD!! Smokkee here, thankfully. This is my first post of 2014 on any of my blogs. Had a little health scare in January and I'm just now starting to feel close to 100% again. I'm good though.

We're less than a week away from the 86th annual Academy Awards ceremony. This year's nominees are among one of the toughest batches I've seen in recent years. Besides the Best Supporting Actress award, which I think is essentially won already, most of these awards are fair game for all who were nominated. Lemme break down who I think has the best shots at each of the major awards.

BEST PICTURE: Spike Jonze's HER

Of the 9 films nominated, only four (AMERICAN HUSTLE, GRAVITY, 12 YEARS A SLAVE, THE WOLF OF WALL STREET) had any major exposure. It's a shame because three other nominees (HER, NEBRASKA, DALLAS BUYERS CLUB) were just terrific. That leaves two (CAPTAIN PHILLIPS, PHILOMENA) that I believe shouldn't have been nominated except they each both had incredible performances: Barkhad Abdi as the pirates 'Captain' in PHILLIPS (which I felt outdid the great Tom Hanks' own performance) and Judi Dench as the eponymous PHILOMENA. Sidenote: 2 outta every 3 movies nominated this year is based on a true story. I don't think I've seen that before but I'm getting older, forgetting alot.

Who wins? 12 YEARS and DBC are good enough to win but unfortunately due to the gravity of their subject matter, I doubt either has a serious shot. AMERICAN HUSTLE is clearly the people's champ right now but GRAVITY may just snatch the award from it. With that said, I feel the Oscar should go to HER. It's a timely movie that's just as funny as it is accurate. Also it's the one movie on this list that everybody can relate to easily without any hangups. Think about it.

BEST ACTRESS: Amy Adams - American Hustle
Considering that every nominee has won an Academy Award accept Amy Adams, that could make her turn as a beautiful con artist in AMERICAN HUSTLE an Oscar winning one. Could, not should. The only serious threat to Adams' win is Cate Blanchett, who almost single-handedly made BLUE JASMINE a must see film. Judi Dench was equally wonderful as PHILOMENA though I doubt she wins this award because of the lack of awareness about it, another reason why I think Adams may eek out this win. To be honest, although I did like Sandra Bullock in GRAVITY, I liked the two strong female leads from AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY so much I felt like Julia Roberts should have gotten this nomination instead of Bullock and of course she as another Oscar winner also could have canceled out her A:OC costar Meryl Steep's nomination.

BEST ACTOR: Leonardo DiCaprio - THE WOLF OF WALL STREET

This year is the year Leo DiCaprio gets his Oscar. TWOWS was fantastic only because of Leo. His embodiment of 80s greed was the heartbeat of this whole movie. I really wasn't that impressed with the movie when I first seen it but I'll chalk that off to the pneumonia I was diagnosed with 2 days later. Even then I noticed that the movies energy flowed from not around, DiCaprio. I just watched it again recently and now feel like it's the little sister to Scorese's GOODFELLAS; same underlying theme sans the violence. Now, Christian Bale was great in AH but he didn't carry his movie like Leo did. Chiwetel Ejiofor COULD win for 12 YEARS because it was one hell of a performance... but yeah right!! Hollywood don't have the guts to give it to him (I wouldn't be mad if they proved me wrong here though). Matthew McConaughey was great in a gutsy role but got outshined in DALLAS BUYERS CLUB. The only real serious threat to Leo is Bruce Dern in a career defining role in NEBRASKA. The Academy could reward Dern here for it.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Jennifer Lawrence - AMERICAN HUSTLE
This is the easiest award winner to pick. Sally Hawkins was OK as BLUE JASMINE's sister but not award winning great. Ditto June Squibb as Dern's long suffering wife in NEBRASKA. Doesn't seem like they had to stretch any acting chops for those roles. And while Julia Roberts was Best Actress level terrific in A:OC and Lupita Nyong'o made everybody take notice of her as the lusted-after slave Patsey in 12 YEARS, neither will win. Nyong'o for the same reason Ejiofor won't win the Best Actor Oscar for the same movie. Robert's A:OC was great but it touches on some extremely taboo subjects. I doubt if the Academy will reward the terrific performances from it but who knows. That only leaves one real nominee and it just so happens that she's Hollywood's current 'IT' girl. My only knock against J Law winning this award is she really wasn't in the movie long enough, in my opinion, to have 'supported' this movie.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Jared Leto - DALLAS BUYERS CLUB
If you read my review for CAPTAIN PHILLIPS, you'll see I LOVED Barkhad Abdi's role as the leader of the pirates who hijack Phillips cargo ship. I was extreme happy to see he got nominated. He won't win though, unfortunately. Neither will Michael Fassbender (whom I have no doubt will win an Oscar within the next three years or so; he's that great) for 12 YEARS. Bradley Cooper and Jonah Hill's noms are mind boggling to say the least. Not because they are bad performances but I can certainly think of better last year. Somebody whom I feel should have been nominated was Will Forte for his role as the Dern's son in NEBRASKA. Another nominee, one that would have been even more shocking than both of Jonah Hill's nominations, is Andrew Dice Clay who played the husband to Hawkin's character in BLUE JASMINE. It wouldn't have mattered though. This year's best supporting actress was actually a man! Jared Leto as Rayon in DALLAS BUYERS CLUB was probably the gutsiest performance all year. And the Academy will reward it as such, I promise.

DIRECTOR: Alfonso Cuaron - GRAVITY

David O Russell may be the favorite here with his AMERICAN HUSTLE entry. Alexander Payne's NEBRASKA touched a lot of people. Martin Scorsese gave us his best film since THE DEPARTED (some would argue GOOFELLAS but I digress) in TWOWS. Steve McQueen COULD win with his 12 YEARS but (stop me if you've heard this) it won't win because of the subject matter. Besides all of that, I feel that Alfonso Cuaron's tale of a doomed space mission should win this Award. It was one of the cinematic marvels of 2013 and even though it was set in space, it essentially boils down to a human study; about how we can lose, and then find, our way again. That's what I got from it, at least.

And now for some quick goes at some of the other awards:

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE: FROZEN, which also wins the BEST MUSIC/ ORIGINAL SONG Oscar for 'Let It Go'. THE WIND RISES should win though. SN: Why wasn't EPIC nominated?

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: HER, easily. It was the most original film of the year, after all.

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: 12 YEARS at least gets one award. This is it.

PRODUCTION DESIGN: GRAVITY. Space ain't never looked this good before.

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM: Denmark's THE HUNT. Very powerful film with a universal message.

BEST DOCUMENTARY: Here, I'm gonna go with my personal choice, the documentary about backup singers called 20 FEET FROM STARDOM. Besides the other choices were too similar to each other to really stand out (except for CUTIE AND THE BOXER, which essentially is about a long term marriage). If you're asking, DIRTY WARS is the best of the rest. OAN: I can't believe Lisa Fischer ('How Can I Ease The Pain?') still looks and sounds good after all these years! She's one of the backup singers featured in 20FFS.


Lisa Fischer not just backup singing w/Mick Jagger at a Rolling Stones concert in 2013.

There you have it, WORLD. I've made my choices and these are my final answers. Am I right? Of course I am!! But we'll just have to wait til this Sunday before it's official. Later, WORLD.

10 Directors Whose Movies Will Never Be Remade

2013-11-27T15:36:00.001-08:00

Hello, WORLD!!

Smokkee here. I been kinda quiet on the movie review side but I haven't stopped writing. I finally feel like I reached the halfway point to finishing my first book of short stories, 'Is There A Third Option?'. Anyway, lemme got to why I decided to write this non-review post. If you're familiar with any of my Smokkee's WORLD blogs, you know I start every post with that one lone sentence at the top, "Hello, WORLD!". I been saying it so long when I wake up in the morning, I can't remember how long ago I started saying it. So naturally, I felt it's the best way to introduce something that I've wrote. Well this is one post, given the topic, that I think I might have started just a little bit different. I might have started this one like "Well, I'm almost sure they'd never have to worry...."

The reason this post even came about is the fact that Spike Lee is remaking Park Chan-wook's unclassifiable movie OLDBOY. It is one of the most unique movies I've ever seen and I'm totally interested in seeing Spike's version...just to see how Spike makes it his own or even if it's remotely possible to do that. I doubt either is possible, really. I can't even figure out what genre to put it in. Is it gangster? Hell yeah! Horror? Well, even after the umpteenth viewing the ending still gives my chills. Romance? There's a love story in here that I don't see how I can explain without giving away the movie, ruining the end, or short circuiting my mind which is still trying to compute what the ending is telling me. I get it but I don't think I want to get it, feel me.

With that said, and one of my choices for this post ( Park Chan-wook, obviously) disqualified from this discussion, here's the top 10 directors that never have to worry about any of their films being remade.

10) Spike Lee

Had to include him since he's the guy that kicked Chan-wook off the list. But think about it: can you really see SCHOOL DAZE remade? Right, me neither. Of course there may be another film based on Malcolm X but will it capture the essence of the former Malcolm Little like Spike's version? Hell no, it won't. Besides, I think if Spike hears that somebody is even thinking about remaking, say, DO THE RIGHT THING, he would blow gasket unlike any he already has. Speaking of which....

9) Quentin Tarantino

If Spike reads this list, coming behind this 'n' word loving director would have him blow another gasket. But thinking about it, I can see JUNGLE FEVER remade before anything Quentin has directed. PULP FICTION started a whole legion of filmmakers using the disjointed story telling style but none even come close to the greatness that is this movie. Not one. JACKIE BROWN, a film made to pay homage to blackpolition movies, turned those on it's ear with an involving style that I don't think any director alive today can mimic. I'm not gonna even mention DJANGO UNCHAINED or INGLORIOUS BASTERDS. These movies are boardline tactless to most people. Any director attempting to remake these movies is committing career suicide. Seriously. Only a man like Quentin can get away with it and I feel bad for any director that wanna prove me wrong...

8) Martin Scorsese:

GOODFELLAS single handedly reinvented the gangster film genre, CASINO was a genre buster as well. What really made me consider Scorsese for this list is TAXI DRIVER, one of the most complicated movies I've ever watched and Travis Bickle maybe the most complicated movie 'hero' ever. So complicated, this movie deserves a blog post of it's own (coming soon, I guess). His SHUTTER ISLAND is one of the best mind fucks of recent history and it too is also worthy of it's own blog post to discuss the ending only. I'm not gonna even bring up his take on Jesus Christ but you see my point here. No director would put out such a film even though directors have way more artistic freedom and the studios are more open-minded than they were when THE LAST TEMPTATION was released in the 1980s. What's interesting here is Scorsese himself has a couple of remakes under his belt too, 1991's CAPE FEAR and 2006's Best Picture Oscar winning THE DEPARTED.

7) M Night Shyamalan / Christopher Nolan

The one director on this list that I am the least fond of, there's no arguing that his first movie, THE SIXTH SENSE, changed the thriller game much like 1995's THE USUAL SUSPECTS did. The famous plot twist
here has been duplicated so many times, a remake would be overkill. Shymalan's career takes a hit with each movie that came after that original movie, which surprisingly still holds up. I hated to include him but nobody will remake any of his movies so yeah he deserves a spot here. But it's a spot that he has to share with Nolan, who is quickly becoming one of my favorite directors working today. It's kinda fitting that he shares this spot with Shyamalan; with the exception of the first two films in the Dark Knight Trilogy, Nolan's movies
all have a perverse twist to them as well. The ending of MEMENTO is haunting if you truly think about it and given how many people don't quite get it, yes I think it will get a future blog post of it's own or it will share one with the not-quite-similar but not-too-different SHUTTER ISLAND. Can you imagine somebody tackling a remake of THE PRESTIGE? Or INCEPTION? No? Neither can I, thankfully.

6) Frances Ford Coppola: THE GODFATHER trilogy has defined mafia movies from the time the first one was released in the early 1970s to this very day. Every mafia movie that has came out since is indebted to one of, if not all three, of these masterpieces. Who's gonna attempt to remake any of these classics? Nobody. Ain't nobody that stupid. His THE CONVERSATION, released between GF 1 and 2, is another classic and way more harder to find a genre for. One thing it has in common with the GFs is it is as equally un-remakable. If you seen the film then you know star Gene Hackmans descent into madness is almost unparallelled, partly because we're not quite sure he is mad. Then you have the ultimate war movie APOCALYPSE NOW. Imitated often, never quite duplicated and almost impossible to remake.

5) Stanley Kubrick: When you think of directors whose movies can never be remade, you MUST add Stan Kubrick to this list. His take on Stephen King's THE SHINING was remade but that was remade from the book, not Kubrick insane vision. His CLOCKWORK ORANGE could be remade, I suppose, but if it is you'll still have Kubrick's version playing in your head. Trust me. His remake of the taboo touching LOLITA is the definitive version. Jeremy Irons starred in a remake from the source material but Kubrick's vision danced in my head the whole time I watched it.

4) David Cronenberg: Cronenberg, like Kubrick, has his own defining touch of film making. You can almost tell you're looking at a Cronenberg movie just by looking at it. Almost every director on this list is like that really, which makes remakes almost impossible. Cronenberg's THE FLY, HISTORY OF VIOLENCE, DEAD RINGERS, VIDEODROME, and EASTERN PROMISES all have his signature creepiness coursing through their veins. I can't think of a director that can bring the same energy to any of these movies if a remake were in the works.

3) Lars Von Triers: One of the most interesting directing techniques of recent memory is the Dogme 95, which basically avoids using any real special effects and chooses to accentuate the acting chops of the actors involved as well as the script of the movie in question. Lars Von Triers is one of the directors that fhelped start this movement. Nevermind that MELANCHOLIA is the most beautiful end of the world movie I've ever seen. Nobody is gonna remake this movie as depressing/uplifting as this story is (it's one of my newest favorite movies, BTW). Nevermind that his THE IDIOTS is an insane (sorry) look at being insane on purpose or as politically incorrect as possible. Nevermind that his gangsta film DOGVILLE doesn't even resemble a gangsta movie, thanks to the Dogme 95 style it was shot in, even when it goes totally gangsta at the end. Take a look at a trailer for his upcoming movie NYMPHOMANIACS. Tell me you see this movie being remade. I'll tell you you're lying.

2) Wes Anderson: Think 'good clean quirkiness'. That's what Wes goes for and that's what he delivers. From RUSHMORE to MOONRISE KINGDOMS he has managed to make lighthearted rom-coms almost as sublime as they are touching. His FANTASTIC MR FOX is a kids movie that's NOT for kids & THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS boasts one of the weirdest families cinema has ever seen. Unremakable is one of the words that come to mind.

1) David Lynch: BLUE VELVET? Untouchable. INLAND EMPIRE? Indescribable. MULHOLLAND DRIVE, one of my favorite movies of all time? Undefinable. Hell, if I can find one person who's seen this movie to agree with me on what this movie is about, I'd be happy with that! Hands down, Lynch is the most untouchable director of my generation. His movies make sense only after multiple viewings. I can only imagine a director tasked with trying to remake one of these movies sitting in a screening room trying to figure out what the hell is going on first before he even attempts to rewrite the scripts.

Right On 'About Time '!!

2013-10-17T16:25:00.000-07:00

Hello, WORLD! Smokkee here. I've been holding off this
review for a few days now but can't put it off any longer. Why? Not really a long story but...lemme just get this review started first.

Not that this unique British movie About Time isn't a great movie, it's fantastic really. It's also kind of hard to catorgoize. I guess it's a love story at it's core but then it kind of does this complete spin away from that initial story line to address other types of love. I know I might be a bit confusing here but bear with me.

Tim's face when he hears the family secret the first time.

About Time opens with slim, lanky, and awkward teenager Tim starting his narration duties introducing us to his family and their traditions, including a family gathering at the family's summer home, and the movie begins during the year his life changes for ever. Usually just hearing that line only induces a groan but in Tim's case, I think you gotta make an exception. By the way Tim is played by Domhnall Gleeson, whom I was unfamiliar with but would've been familiar with if I'd really paid attention to the Harry Potter series. Domhnall does bear a resemblance to Brendon Gleeson, whom I've learned is his father. On Tim's 21st birthday, his father (Bill Nighy, lovable here even if his acting like an asshole) tells him the family secret: the men of the family can time travel. All they have to do, Mr Lake says, is find a dark place, think of a time that's like to go back to, close their hands and they're off. Some of the funniest little bits in this movie is watching him find a dark spot to use to correct his missteps.

After the initial shock of hearing this, and the initial shock of finding out it's actually true by going back to a New Year's party where he's too shy to kiss the girl next to him (managing to kiss her this time), Tim is overjoyed. After the initial warnings of using his powers for monetary gain, Tim's first course of action is to find himself a girl, something that doesn't come too easy to overly awkward teens. He doesn't have to look very far since his sister Kit Kat's drop dead gorgeous friend is spending the summer with them.

Tim's face when he uses the family secret the first time.

Tim doesn't make a move on her til the end of her stay and she rejects him, saying he should have asked her when she first got there. Tim naturally goes back to the past and tries to do just that. Here's where the first unexpected move comes in. He gets rejected again. Now if he knew anything about women, he would have known that all he had to do is go back and actually talk to her instead just expressing how much he adores her. The movie lets Tim take this initial reaction as she doesn't want him and he just moves on.

Tim moves in with a playwright friend of his father in London named Harry (Tom Hollander) while he's practicing law. and it's here that he eventually meets Mary (Rachel McAdams, who has been more attractive to me here than anywhere else I've seen her and here she's almost seems middle-aged believe it or not) at a blind blind dating site. Yes, a blind blind dating site and if you think about it, the idea is genius. It's love at first site when they do finally see each other but thanks to a time travel to aid Harry's latest play avoid a disastrous opening night, he some how manages to unmeet Mary.

I won't describe any more of this movie from this point on. I've only described to you maybe the first 20 or 30 minutes. Of course at this point I expected this movie to be about Tim's efforts to re-meet Mary but I was wrong there. This issue is resolved fairly quickly too. Any time a movie can throw you through a loop with something you're not expecting is cause for celebration, especially in a day and age where we've basically exhausted every genre available. See, this movie goes from telling one type of love story to several, including what I feel is the best love story of them all: the love of living a life worth living. The acting is great but as Bill Nighy really stands out; he owns every scene he's in. I also feel like I fell in love of McAdam's frumpy Mary right along with Tim. She just has this down to earth quality here that I find extremely attractive. Speaking of attractive, London looks absolutely gorgeous.

Another thing this movie did for me was it made me really think about how precious time is. We really don't have a lot of it to start with and the simply fact is a lot of us waste it by doing absolutely nothing at times when some of everything can be done. I'm definitely guilty of this myself, especially since I saw this movie last Wednesday and I'm just getting around to actually writing this review.

Avoid this movie if you don't like British accents. Everybody else is gonna love this movie, lol.
Seriously if you want to see a great love story see this movie.

A+

'Captain Phillips' Deserves a Promotion!

2013-10-11T17:10:00.000-07:00

Hello, WORLD!! Smokkee here. I saw Tom Hanks latest movie, 'Captain Phillips', this past Wednesday. I wasn't totally shocked that it was great, but I can say I didn't expect it. It earns an 'A', easy, but it wasn't as thought provoking as the other movie I screened this week, 'About Time', so I'll keep this one brief so I can go focus on that one.

'Captain Phillips' tales the incredible story of Captain Richard Phillips, captain of the Maersk Alabama, a US container ship. It's set to deliver some goods in Somali, which is notorious for pirate activity. Of course you know that that's exactly what happens: the ship gets hijacked naturally. There wouldn't be a tale without that happening.

We're introduced to these 'pirates' early and they're nothing like Jack Sparrow. They're more like the grown up version of those kids we see on those "Just $1.00 a day can help feed.." commercials and they're looking like they haven't really changed much from those days. They're the native Somalians who work hard enough as fisherman and other odd jobs to still not have much to live off of who're presented with an opportunity of a lifetime for them: big bucks for finding a ship worth hijacking. All of these guys jump at the chance. It was interesting to see that these characters, for all of their impoverish looks, are actually tech savvy. Those selected to aid the would be pirates rush off to find the lone container ship that separates itself from the rest of the ships, which they scoped out their radars. One tells ultra slim Somalian Muse (Barkhad Abdi) that he better not get in his way. The surprise here Abdi, he who looks slow on the up-think at times but is no where near as naive or as fragile as he appears. From this point on, this movie gets intense.

I'm not gonna get into to much detail about what happens after the first attempted hijacking. It's one of the best scenes in the movie because you really get a sense of who Phillips, and Muse, are. It also sets the stage for a global version of chess that some of these players ain't ranked high enough to play.

As for the acting, Hanks here is flawless. I would say he carries this movie because he's the one lone American we see the most of, even though there's gotta be at least 30-40 crew members on deck. I should add that I should've known Hanks would be flawless here; he thrive's as the everyman against all kinds of insurmountable odds (Cast Away, Philadelphia, Saving Private Ryan, and of course Forrest Gump). An Oscar nod would not be undeserved so no shock if he gets one. But as I said earlier, Abdi is the real surprise, more than holding his own against Hanks' Phillips in a battle that won't turn out as either expects.

I'm sorry if I haven't gave you enough info to decide if you want to see this movie or not. I know I didn't want to see it at all. I didn't think I would be entertained. I was wrong. A tense movie with a great share of comedic moments you may or may not hate yourself for laughing at. I know I felt like I shoulda suppressed a few chuckles. But this is one of the most intense movies I've seen all year. Definitely worth a viewing.

A

Why 'Superior Spider-Man' Writer Dan Slott Is The Vince Gilligan of Comic Books

2013-09-25T07:28:00.000-07:00

Hello, WORLD!! Smokke here again with another confession: I was a geek when I was younger. Since I'm being honest, I'm still sorta in geek mode but we're all a bit geeky these days, aren't we? The way some people fawn over TV shows like The Walking Dead, Hell On Wheels, The Simpsons (my personal favorite), or classic TV shows and characters like Star Trek and Dr Who, or any of the millions of lame-ass reality TV shows proves that. But right now I'm geeking out over the geekiest of all topics: comics.

The main reason I've been actually reading these nerdgasms again is because of the death of one of my favorite heroes of all time: Peter Parker, the Amazing Spider-Man....sorta. Writer Dan Slott, the master minded behind the last 50 + issues of the Amazing Spider-Man, felt like Spidey needed a make over. A lot of people disagreed, even going as far as stupidly making death threats to Slott's life.

For the uninitiated, as of issue 700 of the Dan Slott-helmed Amazing Spider-Man (the last one in the series) the Spider-Man we all knew and loved is no more. But there's still a Spidey running around and he's still the original Peter Parker bodywise... but this new version of Spidey is none other than Dr Octopus, who came up with the brilliant idea to switch his dying body with that of his arch nemesis. And it worked, but as Peter (in Doc Ock's body) was dying, he forced Spidey-Ock (SpOck) to see his memories via some kind of mental connection they had established thanks to that body swap. And doing that showed Ock why Peter was Spidey in the 1st place. So there's still a Spidey saving New York because SpOck then vowed he would carry on Parker's legacy.

Still with me so far? OK.

The Amazing Spidey may have died but according to the man formerly known as Otto Octavius, the new Spidey would be better than the first one, a 'superior' Spider Man and there's now a new Spider-Man series called 'Superior Spider Man' detailing this Spidey's crusade against crime.

18 issues into this new series and the anger from fans who were pissed this even happened (myself included) has turned into something else entirely, an addiction to one of the most memorable comic book storylines I've ever read. Ever! This young series has already had TONS of WTF?!!?!?! moments including issue #9. I won't mention anything about these previous issues because you MUST check them out to even believe them, with #9 probably being one of the most depressing comic books I've ever read. It has these... moments
worthy of their own blog posts. Trust me. These early issues establish a fast tempo and a storyline that gave the reader a sense of hope that Peter could somehow revive from the dead and get his body back but all of that hope is muted by the end of the ninth issue, just the way Slott intended.

From issue 10 on, all bets were off and the latter issues got even more intense. Why? The element of surprise. See even though Ock has taken over Parker's body and is actually trying to be a hero, he still has a villain's mentality and he applies that to his crime fighting. This Spidey ain't the friendly-neighborhood guy you grew up with. This Spidey has no problem killing, even shooting one villain in the head at point blank range. What else unhero like has this Spidey done? Well, how about hiring henchmen, even calling them 'Minions'? Or what about have the current mayor of Spidey's New York, former Daily Bugle editor in chief and another Spider Man nemesis J Jonah Jameson, FINALLY show support for Spidey only to have SpOck blackmail him into giving him his own headquarters and spoiling that rare peace between them? And the funny part is everybody and I do mean EVERYBODY knows this isn't gonna be permanent, despite what Dan Slott, the mastermind behind the Superior series, has said. Peter Parker will come back somehow.

How? Who knows? The fact that it doesn't even matter how at this point is proof that Slott is a genius at storytelling. We all want our original Spidey back. That hasn't changed. What has changed is we're in no rush for him to get back. Is that really the case? Maybe, or maybe we don't want to see SpOck gone just yet. My preference is that both Spidey's coexist at the same time. Why not? We already have Scarlet Spider, a Peter Parker clone, running around too and he's already clashed with the new Spidey. And thanks to the events of Marvel's huge company wide Summer crossover series The Age Of Ultron, the time stream itself has been broken and the current issues of Superior Spidey have him fighting the Spider Man from the year 2099. The one thing that is irking me is all of this that has transpired is all just undercards to a main event Slott has been setting up since day 1: Dr Octopus (as Spidey) vs the Green Goblin, a Goblin who may or may not be the original, Norman Osborne. Another future story line has Octavius battling the former Spider Man suit that turned out to be a parasitic alien, Venom, who is currently using Parker's high school friend/bully Flash Thompson as it's host. One more storyline has Dr Octopus along with the Indestructable Hulk and the all 'new' X-Men, which is a joke in itself since these are the original X Men who've been brought to the future because they may be able to stop their own future selves' actions (I know ??????, right?), fighting a villain named Dr Octopus. Yeah. Its getting crazier.

What's crazier is the world Peter Parker will have to deal with once he does return. Superior Spidey has done so much damage to the already fragile life of Peter Parker and the image of Spider Man that maybe Parker is better off dead. He's alienated himself from his friends, particularly the former Mrs Parker, Mary Jane. Recently he's gotten Peter fired from his job at Horizon Labs. He's even has his hero allies like his teammates the Avengers, who have him on 'probation' following a very brutal televised beating of two d-list criminals, raising there eyebrow at him. None more dangerous for Otto than Police Chief Yuri Watanabe who knows Peter is Spidey, knows there's something not quite right bout this Spidey, and is actively investigating what the change behind this Spidey is all about.

Which brings me to another great aspect of this series. The other shoe hasn't dropped yet. Otto's plan working, to some extent, is one thing. It's very interesting to see Otto face the same challenges that Peter faced, easily overcoming some like getting proactive on crime as Spider-Man, failing with typical Parker flare with some like Parker's love life. The other thing is somebody is bound to find out that this is Dr Octopus. He may be in a hero's body now but he's still a comic book villain; no comic book villain succeeds for long. What happens when the truth comes out? What happens if that truth comes out and it's our beloved Petey back in the Red and Blue costume? Fireworks, and storylines galore, for sure.

Yeah I'll admit that when I first heard this idea, I hated it. Spidey is one of my favorite characters in all of fiction. For him to go through this is crazy but crazier still is Slott himself has got to be a bigger fan of Spidey than I am. The history Slott has turned over and over and reworked into this current series is incredible. Also the similarities between the two characters, Peter and Otto, have been made quite clear thanks to Slott's plotting. One was bullied, you say? Well, which one? He's also a genius? Could you get a little bit more specific? The one that lost his parents? Well, Peter's died but Otto's parents.... It's genius how all of it comes into perspective, all the while still telling a fresh story that never seems to let up on the surprises as well as really highlight what being Spider Man means. Slott's characterization also gives the world a Spidey I know a lot of people actually wanted for a long time: a take no prisoner type of hero. Maybe not how everybody expected but that's what we got. He's saved the day numerous times so far but everybody, and once again I do mean EVERYBODY, knows that Otto's downfall is coming.

I'll give you a few moments to gather all what I just said. Got it? Good. Now go read the most fascinating story since....IDK.

Actually, duh! Yeah, I do.

The only thing I can even come up with that can even compare to how exciting this book has been is the tale of a certain chemistry teacher who finds out he has cancer so he starts cooking meth to leave behind for his family to be financially stable after he's gone.

Sound familiar? It just won the Emmy for Outstanding Drama series this year.

Yep, I'm talking about Breaking Bad. There is no denying that AMC's revolutionary show is fascinating TV. Each week there's something of a sense of dread that creeps up on you for no reason whatsoever some of the times but often it's most certainly warranted. Bryan Cranston's antihero Walter White is the most original character we've met in a long time. We love him but we shouldn't. He's not a good guy. He started in the meth business because he wanted to support his family but as the show went on, we've learned that's not quite the case, is it? Some of the things he has done has not only jeopardized his family but cost him a member or 2 maybe. I won't spoil nothing for the uninitated, all 2 or 3 of you, but you've got one week to cram 5 1/2 seasons into before next Sunday's series finale. Be forewarned: you're probably gonna need a doctor before you make it to Season 4. It's that intense.

What 'Breaking Bad' creator Vince Gilligan has done has been phenomenal. This TV show may be coming to a close but the legacy of what it was able to achieve will be talked about for years. I believe that a great story isn't about what happens to what characters. It's about caring for all of the characters themselves, even the villains. If we didn't care, we wouldn't watch. We love Walter White; he's just not a hero and he's not a role model. He's a liar, a killer, a drug dealer, and he's a manipulator but we care about him. Why? I have no idea. His wife, Skylar, has done stuff we don't like but we're not against her either. Her sister Marie and her DEA agent husband Hank, one of Walt's nemesis, aren't bad people either. Jesse, Walt's former student turned partner in meth selling? Lovably dense. One thing all of them have in common is we hope they make it through the series end alive, which if you've been paying attention definitely is not gonna happen now. Over the last 2nd half of the 2 part Season 5, particularly the 'Ozymandias' episode, we've seen Walter stripped down to his bare essence. What we have left is disheartening not because he become a monster but because we understand why he become a monster. Couple that with the fact that he started off just like any normal person would and you could see how we got to this point. And even though Walter has done too much for us to assume he'll be redeemed by Sunday's series finale, aren't we asking for that anyway? We want to see him walk away from this ordeal alive, He certainly doesn't deserve that kinda happy ending but we're gonna be glued to the TV sets regardless just to see for ourselves.

It's kinda the same thing with Otto. I'd love to see if this will make him a super hero when things do return to normal but he doesn't deserve to live after all he's done. Believe me, for all the good Otto as Spider Man he still hasn't redeemed himself for all the wrong that he's done. Just 50 issues before the swap, he tried to destroy the earth! What he's done is made us like him despite his less than righteous actions. We're starting to love the guy that killed Spider-Man. That's about as ludicrous as loving a high school chemistry teacher who turns into drug kingpin. Or any other villains, when you think about it.
Either we're starting to root for the bad guys more or shows like 'Breaking Bad' and books like 'Superior Spider-Man' are doing a damn good job on blurring that once clear line between hero and villain. I've never been so amped up for a series finale in my life and at the same time, I wish it wasn't THE END of Walter's tale. I bet I'm gonna feel the same way when SSM ends too.

Til that day then. In the meantime, I'm definitely gonna stay tuned, WORLD. Dueces.

DON JON: JERSEY? SURE. BUT...

2013-09-19T16:46:00.001-07:00

Hello, WORLD!! Smokkee, back again after another screening. The movie I saw the other night maybe pokes fun at Jersey Shore and the guido mentality. I'm not sure myself, having never watched an episode. I would suspect based on the people you run across in this movie that maybe, just maybe, they're a little more likable than what I assumed. I can also say that this movie is my SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK of this year, which was my 500 DAYS OF SUMMER (another movie starring Gordon-Leavitt) of 2012. What I mean by that is these three romantic comedies, the one movie genre that makes me cringe each and every time, are not cringe inducing. Also they were the best romantic comedies of their respective years.

First time director Joseph Gordon-Leavitt and his HitRecord Productions gives us a movie that starts off with some of the most memorable moments of recent pop culture history. Read that as 'the sexiest'. If this opening montage is to be taken at face value, then sex, with all of its images and implications, is one of the biggest influencers of the people that we became. It certainly shaped Gordon-Leavitt's character. He stars as the title character DON JON, a guy who has anger issues, objectifies women, and seems to just drift through life one sexcapade after another, all the while keeping an impeccably clean apartment to boot. And that's his whole story, at first. Jon Martello, nicknamed Don because his success with the ladies is on par with that of legendary lover Don Juan, would be considered the typical ladies man except for one thing: he doesn't like ladies. No, he's not a homosexual. He's more of a, what, solosexual? Or is it mono sexual? Whatever.

Jon explains in the early goings of this film that for him, real life sex pales in comparison to the sex he sees in porn. He finds himself turning to porn religiously, sometimes even with that night's conquest still asleep in his bed.

Speaking of religion, Jon is definitely a devout Catholic, going to confession and giving very descriptive details of his sins for penence each week with his family. His father, Jon Sr, is played by Tony Danza almost as an older version of the Don himself. You can certainly see the apple hasn't fell that far from the tree. Youll see early on that his father is also a piece of work. Casting Danza in such a role blindsided me but Danza totally pulls it off. His mother, Angela (Glenne Headly, beautiful but underused) is one of those mothers that dote on their kids no matter what kind of oafish behavior they display, more than likely a side effect of marrying an oaf herself. And I found it extremely satisfying that Jon's sister, Monica (Brie Larson) is one of the most interesting people in this movie even though she says less than 5 lines during the whole movie. The looks she give whenever she does decide to take her eyes off of her cellphone, are priceless.

Jon's nights are filled with hanging out with his friends (Rob Brown and Jeremy Luke) at clubs looking for 10s or extremely beautiful women. One night he meets Barbera (Scarlett Johansson) and even though he fails to score with her that night, he manages to track her down and starts to date her exclusively. She seems pretty wholesome, making Jon wait for sex until she feels they've known each other long enough. Oh, and they've hung out together with his and her friends. Oh yeah, and until she meets his family and vice versa. He doesn't want to wait but he does, partially because she has this particular talent that I don't want to even ruin for you. That said, she eventually becomes the object of his masturbation fantasies until they do finally hook up. Then, as you'd expect, he's right back to his porn. Barbera actually catches him looking at some porn one day, something she finds disgusting and he swears he doesn't need it. He swears it off but old habits are hard to break.

Jon is at least attempting to get somewhere further in life than where he's at now. He takes night classes and it's at school that he meets Ester (Julianne Moore). She's...different, to say the least. And troubled, as she sometimes unexpectedly cries at random times. And very outspoken, even questioning Jon on his taste in porn when she catches him looking at some on his phone.

If you think you know where this movie is going, you probably do. I did. I also thoroughly enjoyed everything about it despite that fact. I found it interesting that there are no antagonist in this movie, per se. Or any over the top caricatures, which is what I expected. Gordon-Leavitt delivers us a movie that takes a closer look at a type of guido and shows that guidos are not as bad as people make them out to be. They've just been influenced by the wrong images, mentality. And if they meet the right person, even that can change.
Go see this movie, trust me.

A+

Dueces, WORLD!

INSIDIOUS CHAPTER 2: Announcing The New Horror Kings. Who SAW ThisComing?

2013-09-09T15:55:00.002-07:00

Hello, WORLD! Smokke here. Finally, I can say I've seen a spooky horror flick in 2013 and it was the last

movie I thought it would be. INSIDIOUS, Chapter 1 I suppose, was a decent horror film but way over rated to me. It had one truly terrifying moment. You know which scene I'm talking about. Tip toe thru the tulips... The ending works only because it didn't cheat to get to that last scene. It doesn't save the whole movie but its enough to make it a modern cult classic. I:C1 introduced the Lambert family: the father Josh (Patrick Wilson, a frequent actor used by director James Wan), mother Renee (Rose Byrne) and their sons Dalton (Ty Simpkins) and Foster (Andrew Astor). Josh and Dalton had a secret: they can travel into what is called 'The Further'. 'The Further' is later revealed as one realm for the dead. Dalton went to far into it and Josh had to go in to get him back. Dalton made it back OK. Josh...

If you haven't seen the first chapter, maybe you should see it before you see this one. The only reason I suggest this is so you can see for yourself how much Chapter 2 improves on the original. Chapter 2 picks up right where Chapter 1 ends after a flashback to young Josh's childhood during the time when it is first discovered that Josh can travel to 'The Further' and a psychic named Elise (Lin Shaye) hypnotizes young Josh to take way his ability to travel there (which she unlocks for the elder Josh in Chapter 1). We get a sense that there's something wrong with Josh early. WE (those of us who saw Chapter 1) know what's wrong but the family still needs to be convinced. It isn't until the Lamberts realize there ordeal isn't over quite yet that they start to get a better understanding of what's going on here.


The original demon is back and explained.

What else can I say besides I loved this movie! I loved the fact that Wan and cowriter Leigh Wannell (who also stars in this movie as part of a comic relief duo who worked for Elise) took time to explore the mythology they established in Chapter 1 and expand on it in detail here. I loved the fact that this horror movie got horrific and terrifying and stayed horrific and I'm more than thrilled that the backstory for the original's demon got explored and was just as terrifying as it should have been. Wan's other movie released this year, THE CONJURING, served as a good reminder why we should be paying attention to this guy's movies. I:C2 says that James Wan is the new king of horror and I doubt anybody takes this title from him anytime soon, something that the SAW series implied but could never fully back up. I'm ready for Chapter 3 of this series right now. Hell, I'm ready for the whole damn book!

A+

Dueces WORLD!