Monday, November 22, 2010

Bad Religion - The dissent of man

The album opens up with the song "The day the earth stalled" and it's a quick punk rock song. It's pretty good but then the song "Only Rain" comes in and more true talent resides. Probably the albums best. Then the "resit-stance" comes in for a faster, killer song. Straight forth and no barres hold. The next few songs are really good but not my favorites. "The devil in stitches" is their new single which is good but not my favorite. The rest of the album flows through pretty progressivly. Then my other favorite song "Meeting of the minds" comes in and I love the chord progressions as well as the lead guitar. Those are my fav. song's. I great new Bad Religion cd. #15 I believe.
Grade: B+

Paranormal activity 2

Such as the first film, it pretty much play's out the same way. The characters are connected to those from the first film. Starts out with paranoia and then strange and bizarre things start to happen. Closted doors opening and shutting really hard. Babies being dragged around and stories from the first film fitting into the sequence. If you saw the first movie you will probably like the second. I thoroughly enjoyed the first as I did the second. I'm not gonna write much for this review because it would ruin it.
PA2: B+
PA1:A-
I throw up my hands with those reviews.

Friday, November 19, 2010

Machete

As you may have recalled the Grindhouse movies back in 2007, there was a fake preview for a movie called "Machete" and it became so popular that they went ahead and made a real movie from it. Like the Grindhouse films it's a throwback to the exploitation of 70's films. Basically they try to make it look fake but since they have a higher budget and better technology it's kind of a catch-22 which is on purpose. Anyways this movie is about a guy named Machete who is a federaly who looses his family to a crime boss. Years later he works illegally in texas and is picked up by a a man who wants him to assassinate the senator for 150,000$ He accepts but is double crossed and so he's out for vengeance against all the people who are trying to put an electric fence across the border and, of course, the men who double crossed him. The film turns into a violent exploitation of awesomeness. That's all that should be said about this film. Grade: B+

I spit on your grave

This movie was an assault on all senses. This has got to be the worst piece of trash I have ever seen. Made in the 70's it's about a woman at a lake summer house. She is a writer and spends her days relaxing. Then she is abducted by 4 men who brutally beat and rape her repetitively. This happens for about half the movie. After she gathers herself she plots her revenge. Not much else to say about this movie except that it's vile and I don't know how someone could have written a movie with so much rape in it and some of the violence is equally disturbing.
Grade: D- and that's a generous grade. This movie is alot like "The last house on the left" which I actually liked. But this movie is a definate must NOT see.

Strung Out - Agents of the Underground

Strung out's latest effort "Agents of the Underground" is in my opinion their best. Their isn't one song I dislike, and it's not because their guitarist gives me guitar lesson's. The opening track "Black Crosses" kicks off really fast and doesn't slow down and the breakdown is a nice part thrown in for heaviness. Another good song (and my favorite) is "Nation of thieves." The guitar's mixed with the harmony of the vocals makes a good punk song that is catchy and fun. The last song on the album "Andy Warhol" starts out with a nice, easy and a great guitar tone to set up the song. It's probably and catchiest song on the album. So if you're looking for a good punk / metal record that's melodic, catchy and at sometimes heavy, I recommend it. Grade: A

Avenged Sevenfold - Nightmare

I usually don't like posting music reviews because I think music is all about the personal opinion but I'll do it anyways for some albums I am currently enjoying. The album Nightmare came out last July. It's a dark record and some of the cause was the death of their drummer Jimmy (the Rev.) Sullivan. The album starts off this the title track. The song starts off almost like a dark lullaby but then transitions into a full on metal assault with double bass, twin guitars and amazing drumming. Though metal it is also melodic in some ways. Then the guitar solo's come in and to me the solo's are great and what really makes the song. Another song is called "Buried Alive" and some people have called this their "stairway to heaven." It starts off slow and then builds up heavier and heavier. The singing, lyrics and guitar's are all fantastic here. One of the albums best (if not THE best.) Then their is a song called "So far away." which was written by lead guitarist 'Synyster Gates' lyrics, music and all. It's a ballad but a really good one. The guitar work goes in a different direction then most of their other song's such as using an acoustic finger picking guitar strategy. I good uplifting song which is a nice break from the sonic assault that the album has lead up to thus far. Then their is the ending song which is about 11 minutes. It has atleast 2 choruses and guitar's that spiral out of control that leaves you thinking how does he pull that off? Great ending track to a great record. Since this is my favorite band, I'm giving it an A.

The Social Network.

Here is a movie about a character who seem's like a jerk but in fact has some form of asberger's. He was the creater of Facebook and the youngest billionaire alive. The movie starts with him on a date and his conversation with the girl and it downfalls into the date ending by calling him an "asshole." Which he does not recognize because of his disadvantage of asberger's syndrome. He then carelessly get's drunk and creates a blog at Harvard where he's going to school. He writes about how much of a "bitch" she was and this escalates to more and more people reading his blogs. He then starts progressing his site into more complex things such as rate a girl against another girl to see which is "hotter." This starts some controversy over his blog(s). He then starts the beginning stages of Facebook. He crashes the whole Harvard system because of how many followers he has. He is then starting to get accusations of plagerism and eventually sued by his best friend who says he helped with the idea of Facebook. With his wisdom it helps his case of why he was the sole creator of Facebook. His social life begins to increase as does his progression of Facebook. This movie was well written with great actors and given fantastic dialogue. Grade: A