LeBron James, TWO-TIME NBA CHAMPION, is currently not focusing on his mediocre post-game; he has sight on something more, or less, depending on how important the NBA is to you. LeBron James is in cahoots with the premium TV network Starz regarding his new sitcom 'Survivor's Remorse'. Mr James will be the executive producer of the sitcom that is based out of North Philadelphia. The show will not be featuring LeBron James in the show however the two central characters will be modeled off of LeBron's ascension out of the inner-city and his success afterwards.
7.11.13
The Leader of the New School? Which one?
"Ever since Youtube, (racial slur)'s been callin me the leader of the New school." Okay Drake, I will admit that you are a prominent force to be reckoned with when it comes to honing in on your strengths to become profitable. Money is not the issue here; the issue lies in exactly what school are you referring to. If Drake is referring to the leader of "New School" hip-hop, then he is quite off mark, here's why.
While Drake literally scorched every verse he recorded in the past 12 months, except his own single, leading "hip-hop" does not seem to be his priority. Drake seem like he would like to be considered an "artist" first, who dabbles into hip-hop and occasionally down-tempo r&b. This leads me to believe that he's focused on his artistry versatility more than his hip-hop status.
Drake is probably one of the hottest and popular music artist out right now, who practices hip-hop as a specialty. Confining Drake to hip-hop would be like labeling Rihanna as strictly a pop artist. Rihanna, like Drake, experiments with other genre's enough to point where the lines are blurred, Robin Thicke reference.
Drake, at most, can be the leader of the new school of music in general, where genre's are label-less and artists can weave in and out of them like Money Mayweather in a barrage of punches. Drake, honestly, can NOT release a hip-hop single, along with a R&B pop single and EVER think that he's solidifying his spot amongst hip-hop royalty.
I completely understand Drake's alleged desire to attract audiences from multiple genders and races, but if he continues to "save-face" and please everyone, I am sure he will continue to stretch his self too thin, to where he's just an artist.
Drake can not be the best hip-hop artist or rapper alive because he does not fully absorb his self into hip-hop or rap music, except when he's featured on someone else's song. R&B doesn't seem to important to him either, remember that R&B mixtape he supposedly "shelved" to work on Take Care?
Now, that's not to say that there is anything wrong with wanting to be identified as an "artist". Some of the greatest music entertainers either weren't bound to a genre or were considered solely artists; Prince changed his name to "The Artist, formerly known as Prince".
Along with that, Drake never passes up the chance to create a modernized Negro spiritual. From "YOLO" to "I hate sleeping alone", Drake's quotable breadth knows no limits. Drake does not disappoint with "All Me", which I am sure is going to be quoted more frequently in the dusk of the anticipation of his album Nothing Was The Same.
Which leads me to my next issue, what to expect from the album since nothing is supposed to be the same. Really Drake? Nothing? Not a single thing? I know Drake is borderline emo and creates music based off of feelings, inspirations, past ex's, strippers, specific times of the morning with the location, and where he is with his life, but his constant, narcissistic, braggadocios lyrics lead me to believe that he believes that he's at the top of hip-hop/rap. Listen to the "Versace" remix where he boldly states "rap must be changing, cause I'm at the top...no one on top of me".
Really? Drake's previous nine singles only had three identifiable rap songs, and only two of them were legitimate: "The Motto" and "HYFR". I don't doubt that Drake's calling was to be an entertainer who could lace a smooth hook, murder a feature, and go platinum...with his eye's closed, but since we've already established that, why doesn't Drake progress further in the realm of hip-hop?
He is definitely not doing bad for his self, 20.5 million dollar take home last year, but 2013 feels "the same" as 2011 in reference to the potential outcome of Nothing Was The Same.
My prediction may be inaccurate and Drake can still prove me wrong, but I think the album will be "the Take Care of an alternate dimension". How do I figure? Well, with the two singles "Started From The Bottom" and "Hold On..." I think we can see that some things will be the same, see "Headlines" and "Take Care".
5.11.13
MMLP2 Review
Eminems best album since the diamond ladened Eminem Show, and we've had a decade to digest. MMLP2 is a really good Shady album. Way better than Recovery, way way way better than Relapse, better than Encore for sure, Shady is back in pure form #cocaine. I'd say it's mostly on par with the Eminem Show and that's after one venture through the album. Honestly, you can ignore his last three solo projects because this is his best since 2002.
Nostalgic, yet matic this is hip pop and hip rock at its finest with razor sharp, lightning scattered raps that remind you of the Shady that was once lost. Em shows that he is undoubtedly the best rapper alive, rapping over a slew of atypical rap beats effortlessly, without taking a blink or a breath.
The album is the most diverse, yet cohesive collection of songs that Eminem has presented, opposed to his typical rigid cohesion found on his first three albums. Could've cut a few tracks but this is a very good album nonetheless. Marshall will undoubtedly sell to his fans, and will most likely gain some attraction from new listeners with some of the radio-ready tracks that have not been released as singles.
Ultimately, approach with caution because this is the sequel NOT the original. Eminem does not try to channel inner Shady like he did on Relapse, this is just a peak inside the life of Marshall Mathers at this point in time. With that said, DO NOT EXPECT the Marshall Mathers LP!!! You will be thoroughly disappointed.
You didn't go into the Godfather II expecting the Godfather did you?!?! Maybe you did, not the point; the point is Eminem revisits the FEEL of his old Shady albums which feature nasal pop hooks and a rapper with a lyrically schizophrenic delivery doing a black, shock comedy stand-up routine. If that's the Shady you know and like, then you will be stanisfied.
Favorite Tracks: Bad Guy, So Much Better, Legacy, Stronger Than I Was, Love Game, Brainless, Evil Twin
Best Tracks: Bad Guy, Legacy, Berserk, Headlights, Evil Twin
????? Tracks: Rhyme or Reason, Stronger Than I Was (the antithesis of Kim) , The Monster, So Far..., Headlights (the antithesis of Cleaning Out My Closet)
Rating: Download, stream, purchase album in the first week. 8.5/10 if MMLP was 10/10.
Prediction: Best Rap Album award winner at the Grammy's...the following year since it was released after the 2013 submission deadline. Headlights, Stronger Than I Was, So Far will be singles on AT40 and Legacy, Love Game, and Bad Guy will be singles on hip hop radio stations. Album will almost go Diamond, 7x platinum at the most, easily 5x platinum at the least since this albums production is thrice that of Recovery's.
10.8.13
Drake shows duality with two new singles
"All Me" is a pseudo "turn-up" song with a pleasant serving of bass that doubles as an introspective, ungrateful, self-exalting "me-fest", as if the title didn't clue you in to begin with. The song features notoriously hot artists 2 Chainz and Big Sean. Drake does his best 2 Chainz impression, Big Sean follows suit, to the point where I thought 2 Chainz was a ventriloquist.
"Hold On..." is a late 80's, early 90's pop R&B influenced Billboard track, dressed in a stunning "synth" sundress with an auto-tune necklace; Michael Jackson would be proud. The song features newcomer to the O.V.O. family, Majid Jordan, who I'm sure will see a spike in "something-searches" in regards to his name.
"All Me" fits the mold of most hip-hop songs released in this era with its catchy hook and solid production. "Hold On..." is an overall well constructed track, besides its unpleasantly abrupt ending, that will somehow figure out a way to work itself into your girlfriends playlist.
Ultimately, I like both of the songs and love "Hold On...". "All Me" is extremely forgettable, as it sounds like Drake, 2 Chainz, and Big Sean were all hanging out by the pool and said "Hey, lets make a song!" "Hold On..." is going to go double, if not triple, platinum, as it reminds me of Drake's strategy with his release of "Take Care".
Drake, once again, becomes malleable, which allows him to shed light on his artistic dualism.
31.7.13
Started from the bottom: The Ascension of Willie J
The phrase "started from the bottom" usually evokes the connotation of an individual rising from phoenix-like ashes. The more colloquial connotation would refer to the hit single by hip-hop recording artist Drake. But when "started from the bottom" refers to 5th team reps at the outside linebacker position for the defensively savvy Houston Texans, your bottom is relatively high.
Willie Jefferson, an undrafted defensive end from Stephen F. Austin State University, hails from the oil-centric town known as Beaumont, Texas. As a starter, Willie recorded 15 sacks and an impressive 2 pick six's (interceptions returned for touchdowns). Willie's 15 sacks placed him at the top of the Southland Conference in sacks and 4th nationally in all of NCAA division-1 football at the defensive end position. His stellar performance against McNeese State, 4.5 sacks, garnered him defensive player of the week. There's no doubt that Mr. Jefferson is a stud on defense.
The Houston Texans, notorious for running the 3-4 defensive scheme, three defensive lineman and four linebackers, took a chance with Willie as undrafted free agent.
In retrospect, this was a chance of a lifetime, but not only for the Beaumont bred defensive end, but also for the Texans who picked up a 6 foot 6 inch, athletic monster coming off of the end. In the Texans defensive scheme, implemented by former Dallas Cowboy head coach and defensive sage Wade Phillips, Willie was placed at the outside linebacker position.
Willie apparently handles adversity and change well, because not only did he transition to a new position, he started on the 5th team practice squad and now he's 1st 1st 1st team outside linebacker, currently a starter.
Yes, the season has not commenced yet, but for an undrafted free agent who's had several hiccups in his past to take 1st team reps at the outside linebacker position for the Houston (freaking) Texans 90 miles west of his hometown, must be a dream.
"Willie's gone from fifth team to first team in about a month-and-a-half," coach Gary Kubiak said. "He's come a long way." A long way indeed he has. Now, the real hunger from within should rise as Willie begins to consistently practice with the 1st team defensive squad, with the freak of nature J.J. Watt.
A hurdler of many obstacles, the largest hurdles of his current NFL career thus far are keeping the naysayers in check, fending off obstructions to his spot on the depth chart, as well as permanently positioning hisself as the starting outside linebacker for the Houston Texans. Baring no external detriments, Willie Jefferson will be the upcoming defensive star for the Houston Texans in the 2013-2014 season.
29.7.13
The Wolverine identity crisis
The Wolverine was released in theaters this weekend and the pre-Wolvie hype did not channel the amount of gigawatts as it did the last time Logan had his solo act. Why? The imbalance between expectations and results ratio was out of sorts, due to the massive expectations placed on Origins during Fox's first go around with a Wolverine spin off. Make no mistake, I liked Origins, but let's face it, it was an action sequence sandwich with a side of salad and no dressing.
Subjectively, it was the tits; objectively, it was the shits. However, the real reason why comes from the development of PCDKs, the syndrome recently placed in the DSM-IV. Since 2008, the amount of viewers affected with symptoms has grown exponentially; symptoms include darker, reality-based demands on campy, fantasy fiction films, Oscar worthy expectations from superfluous character actors, and the push towards a more centralized, universal theme with marginalized, deep material, to just name a few.
If you don't know what I'm talking about by now, I'm referring to Post-Cinematic Dark Knight syndrome along with the now effervescent, colloquial phrase "the dark knight treatment".
Well, well, well what do we have here? The reboot within a spin-off film, formerly known as Wolverine: Origins, is finally here. WARNING this review is spoiler-free for the most part; I will not give any major details about the plot or conclusion of the movie. If you want to get to the point, skip to the bottom and work your way up. If you like the extra bacon, cheese, and calories then continue on.
The film was directed by James Mangold (Walk the Line, 3:10 to Yuma), produced by Laura Shuler Donner (the queen bee behind the X-men franchise and wife of the genius who directed Superman 2), and backed and distributed once again by 20th century Fox.
The general premise of the movie, displayed in the theatrical trailer, is centered around the titular hero's travels to Japan and his confrontation with the previously inconceivable opportunity to end his eternal plague of life.
Since when has life been a plague? To the mutant who physically cannot die, life is as plague-filled as an Exodus verse. Well, I'm no immortal or theologian but it sounds like we're in a hell of an existential ride. ¡Vamos!
Okay, five words and one comma: Knight and Day, with claws. If you are not familiar with the film, it is another work of art by James Mangold, with Cameron Diaz and the Hollywood prime minister of scientology himself, Tom Cruise. Basically, the Wolverine teeter-totters between establishing it's identity, loosely similar to the execution of Knight and Day.
Throughout the movie, I found myself questioning whether the Wolverine was an action movie or romantic-drama (not in the vein of the Notebook or the English Patient). Imagine the film Terminator with more sex scenes and romantic relationship development between Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese.
Hold your horses, I'm not making a direct hypothetical comparison between the two films, but the lack of romance or the excess of imminent danger created in the Terminator gave the movie it's firm identity and allowed you to focus on the bad-ass futuristic robot trying to perpetuate the dominance of his artificial intelligent kind.
The Wolverine's action sequences were extremely ambitious and Wolvie opened up a can of whoop ass on plenty of Yakuza goons, but they felt more like cutaways than embedded into the movie. The romantic scenes between Logan and his love interest were believable, but they were not genuinely honest.
Lack of chemistry? Not quite, the chemistry was there; however, the issue derives from the lack of development of romance between the characters. The surface was scraped leaving the viewer with nothing but shaved ice. We like it, but where's the flavor?
In the film Bourne Identity, the romance was a cutaway amongst the action suspense. In the Wolverine, the romance lingered, and rightfully so, but it's lack of commitment to that important aspect of the story muddled things up, in reference to its genre.
Aside from that, Logan's individual scenes where the "pity for the eternal vagabond" was supposed to be milked from the viewer, did not do a very good job at milking. I credit that to lack of investment in the scene.
Not from the recipient of the Oscar nomination for best actor last season, but the Oscar award winning director James Mangold. Did he or did he not let you wallop in your thoughts with scenes of Angelina Jolie as the caustic Lisa in the film Girl, Interrupted or Reese Witherspoon as warm, yet heavy June Carter Cash in the film Walk the Line? Well, he did which is what got those two lovely ladies the Academy hardware to prove it.
Ultimately, I never felt Logan's pain or sensed that his life was an eternal damnation. If anything, Jean Valjean was laissez-faire about his existence and didn't develop enough French-noire-black-and-white-coffee-shop depression on screen to evoke the "awhhh poor baby Wolverine moments" from the crowd.
Compiling those three points together create an overall lack of investment, or one could say "equal balance", with the three focal points of the film (action, romance, and drama), which, in theory, should be avoided at all costs when developing a summer blockbuster. Along with the movie's "equal balance" of genre's, the film's purpose was ambiguous as well.
Typically, movies have a general purpose. For instance, some movies have the sole purpose of generating dollar signs, some to make the audience laugh their bowels out, or some to mundanely entertain.
Leaving personal expectations at the ticket kiosk, why does the screenwriter, director, producer want me to spend money to see their movie?
Since the Wolverine is a summer blockbuster, I would like to think that it's purpose was to make money and entertain. It will make money, that's for sure. The purpose is not coherent until about 68% of the movie is finished. At that point, you can finally forget any miscellaneous misfortunes the movie might had made up until then.
Another minor issue with the movie comes from its obvious and weak attempts at concealing information, forcing the "target audience" to ask 17 questions during the movie.
These tactics cause the movie to slow down, in a sense, because instead of driving the plot forward to progress, you're riding along searching for answers to previously mentioned developments. No, there is absolutely nothing wrong with doing that; however, the movie is still slowed down by it.
In summation, the movie is a slow paced film, that really and truly never picks up steam despite the strip tease it does. This further reinforces the movies questionable purpose because once you have your answer the response warranted is that of an "oh" instead of a more surprised "ahhhh". Which makes you ask, why bother?
Okay now to the fun part, where I tell you my blatant, subjective thoughts on the movie.
Firstly, I would like to say that I absolutely liked the movie and would definitely go see it again, during a matinee.
Secondly, the critical statements I made above contributed to utter fact that the movie is boring, yes, boring in bold letters. I know the slow and steady win the race, but damn, if there's not enough drama to keep me anchored to the script or if the director doesn't take the time to fully invest into the dramatic aspects of the source material, why should I?
Thirdly and finally, I had an immensely disproportionate, prior knowledge about the film because I have read the story arc (from the comic) that the film was loosely based on. In saying that, I think that this is a great stepping stone for a deeper development of the Wolverine story and this movie is essentially the Batman Begins, Man of Steel, and the Amazing Spiderman of the X-men franchise.
Along with that, I thought the last 30 minutes (including post credit scene) could've been shown in a short film fashion, to save time and energy, and it would have been a tad bit better than the movie as a whole. But hey, who am I?
Now that you have all those letters, you're wondering whether the Wolverine is worthwhile or if it is worth it to wait a while and see it. Well, there are three types of people who will most likely see this movie: the fanboy crowd, the "imfamiliarenoughwiththesourcematerialbecauseiwikieverthingandwatchedtheanimatedshow" crowd, or the "target audience" crowd.
Each group will most likely have three different sets of loose expectations. The fanboys probably expect a good movie representation of the Wolverine comic and less importantly a make up for the previous standalone debacle.
The hybrid crowd probably expects slicing and dicing with high octane like action sequences and an overall bad-ass, dark knight like movie, and more importantly a make up for the previous standalone debacle.
The "target audience" probably expects a nice, good summer movie to tell their friends about and possibly learn something new about the material. Most importantly the "target audience" probably has not seen Wolverine Origins or won't let it affect their expectations. Find who you most associate with and follow me.
Fanboys, I must say, this is possibly the most accurate display of a film representation of a comic book that I've ever seen. Since you know what to expect from the source material and since the film doesn't deviate much or take as many liberties as it could from the source material, you will ultimately enjoy your movie experience with minor criticism. I know you've already seen it because of your loyalty and support, so no need to waste my time.
Hybrids, strap in because this will be a long tumultuous ride for you. While this movie from a critical standpoint makes up for Origins flaws, it's slow, drawn out, elusive plot will ultimately put your movie-boner to sleep. Especially, if you're expecting the Dark Knight.
Whether you like it or dislike it, will come down to your personality. The more forgiving, patient crowd will be understanding and have a "half full" outlook, but the wrathful, impatient crowd will be disappointed (yes disappointed) and have a "half empty" outlook and honestly might contemplate walking out of the theater and off of a ledge.
The "target audience" will probably have the most luck. This film is catered to you and you will laugh at all the "inhumorous" , cheesy jokes presented. You will "ohhh" and "ahhh" when the action sequences commence. You will walk out the movies as soon as the credits hit the screen saying "that was a good movie". And you're right, in your precious ignorance, the movie is actually good.
Finally, I don't rate with stars or grades or numbers. I base my ratings on the expectations of the film production and whether it's worth it to see it at the midnight showing, opening weekend, within a couple of weeks, whenever you have free time, illegal online stream, dollar theater, Redbox, premium cable, borrow the dvd, or Netflix.
The Wolverine was good movie, accurate film adaptation, and a indecisive snoozer yet it is definitely worth going to see in a couple of weeks. The film production wanted to make loads of money and satisfy the target audience, while staying true to the source material. All of the film's goals were met, which is why the movie is ultimately successful in my eyes.
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