Some Thoughts - February (Green Book, Apex Legends, Tetris 99, The Umbrella Academy and more)

Music

Slint - Spiderland (4.5/5)

The most poignant and special Post-Rock album you'll ever here, stories spoken over some really mood setting guitars and drums, it perfectly encapsulates tween and young teen years for me, and subsequently that is what the album is all about. The cover shows the band in a river or pond insinuating that childhood skinny dipping day out adventure on the weekend, while also being black and white, as in old, the past. It is really quite wonderful, lyrical content here is just so amazing but metaphorical and interesting to see what the lead singer was thinking about. Great fucking album.

Fave Tracks: Breadcrumb Trail, Nosferatu Man, Washer, Good Morning Captain


James Blake - Assume Form (3/5)

On a recommendation from a friend I decided to try out the new James Blake album, this is the first music I've heard from Blake, even though I've known about him for a while and he may have popped up as some features. I can see the attraction of this music, sweet, solemn, sad, passionate, all of it really well made, for me though it doesn't quite hit that melancholy vibe I want out of slow and personal hip-hop. Maybe it's because I'm not in the right frame of mind right now, maybe I'm just not into it a lot. That being said there are some really great tracks here, Mile High is the main one that I find wanting to listen to the most. I also found that once the Spring weather kicked in, warm sun with a cool chill, I found the music much more enjoyable, the first time I feel like the weather has truly changed the way I listen to an alum without it being indirect. I like it but I don't think I'm looking for this music right now.

Fave Tracks: Mile High, Tell Them, Where's The Catch?


Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (4/5)

If you told me from 10 years ago that I would be listening and loving a Kanye West album, old me would be ashamed, hell if you asked me 4 years ago he wouldn't believe it, but not only is it true, but it rules. This is the best production on an album I think I have ever heard, song after song is a catchy pop rap track, some of these songs are literal 5 STAH songs. So why haven't I rated this 5 stars? Well it's simple, I don't love everything, I think some of the middle tracks aren't to my liking and they drag the rest of the album down a leel for me. Monster is an ok song, but I don't find the beat as catchy as others plus Jay-Z has an awful feature on it. But let's talk about the 5 STAH songs, the biggest singles, POWER and All Of The Lights. They are FUCKING BOPS, couple that with the intro two tracks of Dark Fantasy and Gorgeous, you got yourself a STRONG start. then the ending doesn't pull punches either, other single Runaway is another jam, along with Blame Game and Lost In The World. The whole thing is pretty impeccable to be honest. It's a shame some of those tracks didn't hit me as hard.

Fave Tracks: Dark Fantasy, POWER, All Of The Lights, Runaway, Blame Game, Lost In The World.


Movies
I'm aware that as I'm about to post this blog, I've already talked about most of these movies here in my previous post from a few days ago, I wrote all these short things after I saw the movies back at the beginning of the month, and wrote everything in the previous post literally the other day. So sorry for the same topics being touched on again.


Roma (4.5/5)

Realism isn't something I thought would draw me into a movie so much, especially when I have been playing Red Dead Redemption 2 which uses realism to poor effect. Obviously a different medium but Roma feels like a real life story happening all over the world right now. I haven't felt so connected to a protagonist, I feel like I have so much in common with her, she lives through my worst fear, even as a male, and that's where it's hard to come to terms with my feelings, most responses I've seen are all about how sad it is, but I found that it was sad, but I also found myself squirming in my seat throughout the duration of the whole movie. Children screaming and playing loudly and annoyingly coupled with the impending nature of pregnancy and then the inevitable place that story ends with it being like nothing ever happened. I can't say I want to watch it again for a long time, but I can say it is fucking amazing.


Stan & Ollie (3.5/5)

A funny and heartwarming look into the incredible friendship of one of the most famous comedy duos in history. This was a super enjoyable movie, and makes me want to look into and investigate Laurel & Hardy in all there avenues. The comedy in this movie is done to such great effect that part of me believes that the writers for this movie did their research or added in some skits that Laurel wrote that were never made. Steve Coogan is a great Laurel, but John C Reilly completely sinks into the role of Oliver Hardy, he comes across as such a warm and likeable human to the point where I feel like I can't see any John C Reilly in there. Really great watch.


Green Book (3.5/5)

The best way to describe this movie is, racism for the white privileged person, that's not to say this isn't a good movie, but it treats racism in such a way to almost explain it to a white person, using the two distinctly different characters as the contrast to show off how stereotypes are dangerous etc. Almost all the comedy comes from class and personality differences between the two main characters which is great appreciated and done very well. Much funnier than you would think, Mahershala Ali is the stand out here, he is wonderful actor and it shouldn't be a surprise. Viggo Mortensen however is very hammy as the Italian American New York gangster, I don't actually hate it but it very 'EYY I'M WALKIN' 'ERE', which makes it, at least in my mind, a bit silly to believe he was the best lead actor this year. Regardless I think it is a good movie.


The Wife (3/5)

Yknow, I think bar some poor story choices, sporadic bad acting and some boring cinematography, the story is really compelling, Close, Pryce and Slater are all the stars here and make the whole movie work, I also think the score was used really effectively here and added a lot. Overall surprisingly better than anticipated.

Games

Apex Legends

Releasing out of nowhere, Apex Legends is now not only my first real Battle Royale experience, but I think it is the best. The game has systems that are completely ground breaking for multiplayer games in general not just for this young genre. The ping system seems like something that will be used to great effect in multiplayer shooter for years to come. The smart equipping and item management in this game is also just an amazing rendition, I have to commend the designers behind this mechanic and the UI designers making sure that is so easily readable at such a quick glance. But all that stuff aside, this is a great battle royale game because it is Respawn and Titanfall 2 at its core, and that's why this is connecting with a lot of people who weren't on the Fortnite bandwagon. Also I'm so happy this is what Respawn has been working on, I love Titanfall 2 and would love a sequel, but this is a smart move and a great game by it's own right, plus it is blowing up in a major way and I'm so happy for them. I want to give them some money, I'm just looking for the right time to do it.


Tetris 99

From one sneaky release free-to-play battle royale game to another, yep what are the fucking odds, it's Tetris 99. Tetris but it's a battle royale, and guess what? It fucking rules, big time! It's quite difficult to get a win if you're bad at Tetris like me, but it's so addictive and you can lose hours to playing this small little thing. Much better than it has any right to be. You can only get this if you have Nintendo Online subscription, I got the 7 day free trail just to give it a go and fell down the rabbit hole.


Super Mario Bros. (4/5)

Speaking of the Nintendo Online, I downloaded the NES package that you can only get with the online too. Booted it up and decided that Super Mario Bros would be the one to try as it is THEE classic game. I have never played this game for more than 10 minutes and I expected the same to happen here. And then I just kinda got sucked in. It's some fucking superb platforming, like much better than it has any right to be, and I'll be honest, I fucking cheese'd it so hard, there was a save state feature that I abused, and I'm sure that meant I missed a lot of the things that make it special, but the truth is I would never have played it over the 10 minutes if this feature wasn't included and it allowed me to finally experience this classic game that I would never have beaten otherwise. Hopefully this opens the flood gates to me actually trying to beat this game without the emulator save states.


TV

The Umbrella Academy - Season 1

Umbrella Academy is weird and kooky with a soft and warm interior, It feels like a band of misfits, but truly a family, it feels like this should be an X-Men TV show to be honest. It's characterisation of every single character is astonishing, and it wouldn't be half the show it is if the cast wasn't this good, we have the very well known and great Ellen Page, but we also have the standouts in Aiden Gallagher who play Number 5, a literal old man inside a CHILDS BODY, this is a child actor putting on a better performance than anyone. Robert Sheehan, a possible familiar face here in Britain from Misfits, but here he play Klaus, a tortured drugged up soul. This is another astonishing example of how Netflix just kills it in the TV department.

The Punisher - Season 2

I loved The Punisher Season 1, it was on par with the amazing first seasons of Daredevil and Jessica Jones, Season 2 however, I'm not such a big fan. I really like this season, but there is one episode and multiple elements throughout the series that I violently hate. The episode in question is Episode 8, which previously to this felt like a completely different show, characters have interactions that don't add up, Frank has a sudden turn that feels unwarranted with what his actions in previous episodes mean. Also my least favourite part about the whole show is the Billy Russo storyline, and specifically Russo and Krista. The relationship minus the last two episodes of the show, doesn't have any real conversations, it's this dumb, melodramatic, goofy and "CRAAaaAaZY" story and it derails what up until this point has been a really great season of a show. The start of the show has Billy Russo as a crazed maniac, and by the end he is just a normal murdering criminal? You know what DOESNT SUCK though? THE PILGRIM STORYLINE, everything involving Josh Stewart acting as John Pilgrim is GREAT, everything where John and Frank cross paths is GREAT. THE FIRST LIKE 3 EPISODES OF THIS SEASON IS AMAZING! Like it sucks hard that there is a middle point which just crashes hard. I also found all the IS FRANK KILLING A GOOD THING, just got derailed a lot too, during the actually great fight scenes you don't think about that, but what happens around that is problematic, the beginning of the show feels like Frank after a year or so not killing finally being able to put that life behind him, but seeing a poor girl in trouble comes back to his old ways, he eventually starts to wonder if killing is really the right way he should go about this, he has doubts, because his morales are there but the murdering is the only thing that muddys the waters, it feels like he may stop killing, WHAT AN INTERESTING PLOT, well when Episode 8 comes around Frank is just KILLING and BRUTALISING people ignoring everything else before this. This is the first time where I've wanted to actually sit and possible rewrite a piece of media, because I think a season of The Punisher where the focus is The Last Of Us Daddy/Daughter connection along with The Punisher turning into Batman, ideals wise, is SO MUCH MORE COMPELLING. so we'll see if I ever do that, if I do I will definitely share it out. Overall really good show!

Wrestling

A preface, annoyingly behind my New Japan right now, I wanted to catch some New Beginning matches, and Honour Rising just kinda happened without me knowing so no opinions on that right now unfortunately, if I get to it next month I'll write about them. I've been kinda watching odd matches here and there instead of full events. So maybe I shall write about some matches I've watched as well next month. I want to get around to PAC vs Ospreay from RevPro's High Stakes, as well as OTT' Homecoming 3 with Devlin/Starr and PAC/WALTER on it, so hopefully I write something about those next month.

WWE NXT Halftime Heat

It was only one match but I thought I should give it a shout anyway, one of the best sprint matches I have seen in a long long time, I wish we had some more world class sprints more often but yeah, this was just an excellent 6-man tag.

NJPW The New Beginning in Osaka

THIS HAS BEEN ADDED AS OF 7TH MARCH 2019

So it turns out I actually did watch one event from New Japan this month, I didn't watch the full event but I did watch the last 3 or 4 matches. Which were all fairly poor apart from the main event that showed a White shock win over the ace Tanahahi for the IWGP Heavyweight belt. I honestly don't remember much about the match other than the finish and being really excite that they decided to make Tanahashi effectively a transitional champion for the new biggest western star. It was a cool moment.

WWE Elimination Chamber

Overall I think the show was a bit lack luster, with Braun/Corbin being really awful and Ronda/Ruby being a squash, I didn't mind the others, and the Women's Tag Chamber was entertaining if not a little messy. But really it didn't matter because the main event is one of the best EC's, and is already on my MOTY list. More specifically the last two stretch with Bryan and Kofi, is really putting into perspective 1. Kofi is way better than anyone realised for a long time, 2. Bryan might legitimately be the best wrestler in the world right now and he's probably best of all time behind Shawn Michaels. Bryan has been my favourite wrestler for a long time now but this heel run, and the matches he's putting on aswell, it just shows me that he is legitimately one of the best wrestlers we've ever seen. 

Books & Comics

This was added as of 17th March 2019, because I FORGOT THAT I ALSO READ. I don't read very often so maybe the section won't appear very much, I'm trying to get better, but it has also been my new years resolution fr the past 3 years to get better.

The Infinity War

The book before this, The Infinity Gauntlet was the basis for the movie Infinity War, and although not a lot of the characteristics between that story and the MCU version are really similar, they are both great in their separate ways. Infinity Gauntlet focuses on the heroes and them stopping Thanos. Infinity War is much more of a mess and less good because of it. The book really lacks any direction from the get go, almost all the characters you have heard of get almost no lines in replacement of Adam Warlock, Thanos, Galactus and the evil Adam Warlock that I can't remember. The dialogue is so flamboyant, but fails to say anything meaningful, and just leaves the reader confused. honestly not worth the time if you were interested in following the whole Infinity story line after Gauntlet. 

2018's Best Of The Year - Films

As of writing, last night was the 91st Academy Awards, DA OSCARS. I have opinions about the awards and the movies that were honoured, but I waited for this long to do my list because we don't get some of the best movies of the past year until the Oscar nominations come out here in the UK. That's how Shape Of Water missed out on it's number 2 spot last year, so now I have decided to finally confirm my TOP 15 of 2018 now in this blog. THIS LIST IS THE TRUE OSCAR MOVIES PEOPLE.

So this won the Best Picture Oscar last night, which I strongly disagree with, but I didn't want that to dampen my actual opinion on my experience with the movie. I really enjoyed the movie, I think it's heart warming and too funny for its own good. But this movie is best described as 'racism for the old privileged white people'. Viggo Mortensen, who delivers a really cartoonish performances of an Italian american, is the white man that tells Mahershala Ali's Don Shirley how to be black, the white man has to tell the black man how special he is, the black man is forever changed by the white man, bleh. But the movie above everything is a great friendship movie, Mahershala Ali is amazing, yet again, and he also won the Oscar for his performance. Overall I think this movie is a really easy watch that makes you feel stuff, I admire what it tries to do but it comes across a bit problematic for me, but that aside a really good flick.

This was my most anticipated movie of this year and it didn't reach my expectations, unfortunately, but this movie is really a great watch. Gosling plays such a great Armstrong, you can tell he is always thinking, always carrying concern and always carrying his sadness from his life events. Claire Foy is criminally underrated in this movie, she should've been nominated, she puts on such a performance. But the cinematography, the sound editing of the scenes of space exploration and the last stretch of the movie is really the highlight. I may have expected to love it more but it's still a really great flick.

This movie is seriously something special and it SUCKS that it didn't connect with me more, but I still really love that movie, it's tense, it's creepy and frankly it is insane that no award shows picked this up. Tilda Swinton should be the woman winning the award for her THREE, count em THREE, supporting roles in this movie. You know I didn't even know she did the other characters in the movie until after I walked out, I knew that the old man was someone in makeup, because I can tell with that stuff, but I thought it was just a young male actor who I assumed was perfect for the role despite the age. NO ITS FUCKIN TILDA. Amazing movie, very suspenseful and definitely worth a watch if you're into that weird horror.

I'll be upfront, I think there is a good chance this is higher than Suspiria because I watched the original Halloween for the first time on the 29th of October in the dark of night, and then me and my girlfriend went and saw this new one the night of Halloween and with the original fresh in my mind, I felt this new sequel gave me the same feeling that I got from the impeccable original that I was really head over heels for, the call backs were really well done which is where sequels can trip up for me, the plot feels like a natural extension of the original. I don't know, maybe my first time watch love for the original Halloween is pushing this higher than it should be, but I really did love the whole experience of seeing this movie.

My original viewing of Black Panther was just ok, I was really happy about all its success because of it being such a prolific black cast, but I didn't feel like it did much for me. Cut back to me watching it again last month, and MY GOD this movie is way better than I remember it, and should I really be surprised? This is the MCU. Michael B Jordan is really the highlight for me, the world design of Wakanda, the traditional African music weaved into the soundtrack, the outfit design, the technology design, the CAST, the final fight scene, Black Panther is a really great movie.

I squeezed this into 10 over the ones above just because this was the most surprising and genuine comedies I have seen in a long long time, and this gives me confidence that these movies can continue to be made, John Cena steals the movie for me and that isn't just because I love wrestling, that's because his comedic performance is excellent, though I shouldn't be surprised. There really is something to say about a tight small story that plays off human emotion to forward story, and it still be very funny. Maybe other people would roll their eyes at this, but I feel like this scratches the itch of a straight-up comedy movie in the same vain of The Hangover series. I would love a sequel to this, I'm not not sure it really is made for a sequel, but still. Go watch this movie.

This has also come out of left field for me. When I heard the movie was coming out I was excited for it, because it sounded like a really good biopic, I kinda forgot about it, it came out and I got hyped again, it was out for a couple of weeks, and I wasn't hearing anything about it, finally got a chance to go see it, and then I found out that I really really love this movie? John C Reilly sinks into the role as Oliver Hardy, Steve Coogan sinks into the role of Stan Laurel, the two have electrifying chemistry worthy of Laurel and Hardy, the writing is funny and touching. Again, I'm starting to see a theme with my list here, but this is an easy, feel-good, heart warming watch and I would gladly watch it again anytime.

It has been a while since I saw this movie, so it may be a bit risky putting this movie here, but all I remember is being really enthralled with this movie and some of the main beats. I think I'm due a rewatch already but I remember being so tense and scared during this movie, having the combination of great acting alongside REAL INTERVIEWS like a documentary with the subjects of the film gives the movie a sort of real investment that I have never had in a movie before. The way the screenplay/writing is done is incredible, the way it slowly reveals the events of the story with the interviews and the actual acted set pieces. Masterful. It fucking sucks this wasn't brought up more during the awards season. I'm gonna hope that this fits into the same category as The Killing Of A Sacred Dear last year, where it got no awards buzz but next year this director is gonna create a movie that is a front runner for Oscars that is also great!

I mean, this movie is a very special piece of cinema, there are so many other people talking about this movie on YouTube and blogs that describe why it's so amazing much more eloquently than me, so I won't say much. All I'll say is, my first viewing sucked but I could tell it was a great movie that I really liked, so I'm DYING to watch this movie again. It made me feel like a kid the same way The Incredibles made me felt when I left the cinema back in 2004, I went home and thought about all the Spider-Men, thought myself as a Spider-Man (#spidersona look it up!). Also this is loosely based off one of my favourite comic story lines of all time and yknow, that is just fucking cool.

After a second viewing of Spider-Verse these two could swap places, but similar to Halloween previously in this list, Mission Impossible: Fallout maybe ranks higher than it would usually because this movie was the eye opening action movie to the whole Mission Impossible series that me and my dad inevitable watched all of after we saw this in the cinema. I still think this might be the best one of the whole series, but I really fucking love that series now and it's all down to this, it also gave me and my dad some really great quality time. One of the best action movies I've ever seen, period.

Now I talked to my buddy who voiced some opinions with this movie that makes the movie problematic. Most notably the danger of portraying racists as just 'dumb white southern people', where racists aren't dumb, true racism in todays society is much more sinister and is cultivated around by people who are smart and manipulative about how they spread around their disgusting view points. I agree with that stance, but right here, THIS movie, is still really fucking great. Something about it really grabbed me, I love the story and the acting, the visual aesthetic, but maybe it's the 'FilmBro' in me. The guy who loves, Quentin Tarantino and Fight Club, because that is me. Regardless I really love this movie, people are divided about the ending apparently, I don't have strong opinions, I think it works for what they were trying to do, but it was on the nose.

DEPRESSED LA LA LAND. Yeah that's down my alley, it fucking hurts, it makes you wish you could change the events of the movie, but you love to see the connection these two have. Man I can't seem to articulate my love for this movie. Yknow why this movie is even better than the excellent movie it already is? Because it stars Bradley Cooper who is also making is directorial debut, it stars Lady Gaga who is making her acting debut, and they both KNOCK IT OUT OF THE PARK. The music is sublime. When I hear that 'Tell me something girl..' opening line of Shallow, I get chills throughout my body. WATCH THIS HEART RETCHING BEAUTIFULLY ACTED MOVIE PEOPLE.

Here in the UK we basically got Infinity War a whole day early before the US. I went at midnight with my girlfriend and my friend, I then had the second of two very visceral reactions to a movie ever. I was shaking, I was enthralled, I was enamoured with the magnitude the film gave to this story and to these characters. I can't truly explain how important this film felt while watching it with a PACKED cinema in the dead of night. I then spent the next 24 hours, basically living in a world where only I and a select few actually knew what happened in the movie. Seeing comments of excitement for the movie to come out were so surreal after seeing the movie. Needless to say this has permeated culture in a way that I don't think anything has before. Endgame cannot come any sooner.

Love Triangle? CHECK! LGBTQ+ lead characters? CHECK! Mocking the period it is set in? CHECK! A side plot that is super intriguing but is treated as fodder around the main story but then it actually acts as a piece to be played inside the main story. CHECK! People, this movie is crazy good, I mean it's really good, it is acted to perfection by the three LEADS. It is a wonderfully intricate story. THIS FUCKIN RULES PEOPLE! Old people walked out when they realised it was a lesbian story! AHAHAHA I LOVE IT MAN!

The most painfully realistic movie I have ever seen. It made me realise that I have more in common with this lead character than any other before it. I hated watching it throughout and it feels like it was just what they wanted. This is probably the best movie I have ever seen, even though I don't think it's my favourite movie. This is a special movie, this should've won best picture, this should be the movie everyone is talking about.