lazerv4

[lazerv4]

Thoughts on The Umbrella Academy Season 4

Just my raw thoughts not a review or anything

Umbrella Academy is such a mixed bag, it starts with a really great first season which is then followed by incredible television with the amazing season 2 and then season 3 is fine but not great which is a shame after 2 but now we are at the 4th and final season which just so happens to be the worst one and actual trash, what the hell happened?

From dumb plotlines like whatever the fuck they were trying to do with Lila and Five to completely dropped ones like Sloane and while there were some highlights like Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally as this season´s guests most of the show struggles to do anything new or interesting even failing to have a classic Five showstopper action sequence or the traditional dance sequence. It's just disappointment after disappointment until it wraps up half haphazardly into a terrible ending that tries to play I Think We Are Alone but for some reason they just didn’t get Gerard Way you know the creator of this whole thing who has a band that reunited recently and happens to be one of the most influential and popular acts of the 2000s. I don’t even know how this happened.

Watch season 1 and 2 but then just stop, it’s really not worth it to keep going.

[lazerv4]

Thoughts on Viewfinder

Just my raw thoughts not a review or anything

Viewfinder is a short and beautiful little puzzle game that explores the lives of a group of people trying to save the world longer after they failed while we look through their living environment in search of a solution to the current era. The games also has a fantastic gimmick in letting you make photos, drawings or charts into physical objects you can use to get to new locations which is really cool and makes for big wow moments but also isn’t super challenging as it is pretty simple and slow but hey it looks really cool and helps drive the narrative further which is the main thing this game is trying to make you connect to unexpectedly.

It’s just really pretty and nice and that one stupid clip that made the rounds on Twitter and made everyone think the game was gonna have dialogue similar to Forsaken just missed out because it doesn’t and what it has to say is just nice and gives you some really memorable hours. In a way it reminds me of games like Gris and Sayonara Wild Hearts, more than a game it’s a short experience that can only be lived through video games, it’s not quite my beloved What Remains of Edith Finch but it’s still the kind of thing people should check out and learn from to tell a story only games can.

[lazerv4]

Thoughts on Jujutsu Kaisen 0 [REWATCH]

Just my raw thoughts not a review or anything

The debut of the goat himself, the greatest to ever do it, Yuta Okkotsu. THIS IS WHAT A SHONEN MOVIE SHOULD BE. We are constantly stuck with dumb non canon meaningless stories like with all the My Hero Academia movies or arcs that just don’t work all that well as movies like with Demon Slayer: Mugen Train. Jujutsu Kaisen 0 adapts the one volume original trial run for Jujutsu Kaisen previously titled Tokyo Metropolitan Curse Technical School which narrates the events of Yuta’s rise to power, The Night Parade of a Hundred Demons (it's more like a few thousand) and the death of Suguru Geto.

The movie begins with an introduction to Yuta Okkotsu a young man who has been cursed by the soul of his childhood friend Rikka as he is placed in Jujutsu High so that Saturo Gojo the world’s strongest sorcerer can hopefully exorcize it without killing Yuta like the higher ups want in a mirror to what later would happen with Yuji Itadori in the main series. As he begins his time in the academy he meets and slowly befriends the upper class men from the main series Inumaki, Maki and Panda as they start teaching him how to successfully use Jujutsu and master the use of Rikka as a shikigami (summon) while remaining in control of the situation as the school year goes by and eventually Geto shows up determined to absorb Rikka so that he can make a world only for Jujutsu sorcerers, this leads to the eponymous night parade of a hundred demons where we see a few main events, Gojo vs Miguel where Gojo goes absolutely ballistic on Miguel in what people have now called “a hate crime” as he beats him over and somehow Miguel manages to stall and leave decently uninjured which if you know Gojo it’s a ridiculous feat, we see the fights of the Kyoto students as well as Nanami hitting his record 4 black flashes and the main event of Yuta vs Geto as when his plan succeeds to lead out everyone to the fights in Tokyo and Kyoto he attacks the students in Jujutsu High greatly injuring them as they attempt to prevent him from reaching Yuta who as soon as he realizes this swoop in, shows us his new mastery of reverse curse technique to heal them all and engages in a fight with Geto.

Through the movie we saw Yuta fight a few times, mostly in a very sloppy and unrefined style as he mostly got away through the Rikka safety net and having decent control over his cursed energy to channel through his katana but he never even showed signs of a cursed technique until now that Geto attempts to shoot hundreds of little curses we see Yuta standing on a building as he pulls out a megaphone and screams perish and we learn he has somehow copied Inumaki’s technique of cursed speech and they all fall and die as we cut back to a perplexed Geto who then proceeds to use Playful Cloud (a weapon that would be used a lot early on the main series) to try to fight Yuta hand to hand, this backfires tremendously as his speed is not only way beyond what Geto expected with Yuta weaving through the battlefield and matching his speed but severely underestimating his rage Yuta purposely destroys his katana to hit Geto square in the face with possibly the coolest black flash we’ve seen in the anime as Geto is pushed to the limit and attempts to finish this with his maximum technique Uzumaki, Yuta to counter Geto’s massive blast promises Rikka his life in exchange for the power to defeat Geto as he shoots a barrage of pure cursed energy he calls “Pure Love” (as in purity not absolute) to destroy the Uzumaki and finish Geto in what turned out to be one last incredible fight scene from director Sunghoo Park.

JJK 0 is just incredible at working it’s arc into a movie format and taking advantage of what a movie can do that anime can’t unlike Mugen Train, it’s a great showcase of what Mappa can do for a movie and with an alleged (and very likely) horrible schedule of 4 months to finish the entire movie I can only thank everyone who poured blood, sweat and tears for this incredible piece of animation and every works they’ll do after.

[lazerv4]

Thoughts on Blackpink World Tour: Born Pink in Theaters

Just my raw thoughts not a review or anything

My first time watching a concert movie since probably Miley Cyrus / Hannah Montana Best of Both Worlds in 3D back when I was a literal child and also a concert I happened to see live during it’s 2 day visit to my country. It was an interesting experience but idk if I quite get it, as a remembrance of the tour it’s neat but a little too sanitized perfect for my taste, one of my favorite things was Rosé going on random tangents about Tally and attempting to rap Lisa’s parts or in my particular show Jisoo attempting to speak spanish and then the girls all receiving special themed sombreros from the fans. There is a lot to appreciate as a sort of professional live video similar to a pro shot for theater productions but to greater extent it lacks the qualities that make the memories of a concert stick around forever. As for the show itself I love Blackpink and it was a pleasure to see them both live and on the big screen one more time because with how YG is treating them I don’t know if the group will make it to a tertiary release.

[lazerv4]

Thoughts on Crow Country

Just my raw thoughts not a review or anything

I hold no nostalgia for Resident Evil 1-3 likes and at most Parasite Eve is my single big connection to that classic style of horror, that said Crow Country blew me away in every respect.

The game is a simple horror throwback mixing Resident Evil 2 with Final Fantasy VII overworld visuals and giving it more modern gameplay which, like a smoothie, mixes incredibly well. The visuals in particular are really commendable for being strikingly creepy and unsettling through the entire journey that just never stops being widely uncomfortable and scary even when most of the game was played through the Steam Deck in which it runs like a dream. Another outstanding part of the game is the plot as it was honestly very interesting and unpredictable, while I will concede a few twists with the characters just weren't there, the main plot of what happened at the theme park and what the actual monstrous creatures you encounter are is so unique for a horror game I don’t think I’ve ever seen it as we usually default to a virus of some kind of magic neither which is featured here. The originality and refinement are Crow Country’s biggest weapons as everything just works great always, it’s an incredible game and an easy recommendation, some other people more articulate and experienced in horror games like Nitro Rad can do a way better breakdown of Crow Country than me but for this I’ll leave it short and sweet like the game itself.

[lazerv4]

Thoughts on Dragon Age: Inquisition [REPLAY]

Just my raw thoughts not a review or anything

Coming back to Inquisition after 10 years now, is like seeing an old friend that you truly didn’t realize how much they really cared until now that they’ve been gone for a while.

I loved my time revisiting the third entry in Dragon Age especially after last year’s Baldur's Gate 3 and the release this year of Dragon Age: The Veilguard in a few months.

Besides a few issues with the ambition of the story not quite being able to be realized at the time the game is incredibly fun, charming, epic, funny and honestly kind of ahead of it’s time like it’s series tends to be.

First speaking for the gameplay I played a rogue who specialized in assassination, which was incredibly fun a had an entertaining loop once I got my build finalized because man it took a bit to get to the good stuff and I’m not sure if I would have the patience if I already didn’t love the game which is a big slight issue that while the game eventually solved took way too long. The open worlds are all nice, fun and expansive if you remember that not all of them are gigantic and the hinterlands is a go back to every so often kind of place instead of staying there forever like many did. The combat flows well with the level design for the most part having areas that are open and easy to maneuver through however the prowess of the engine holds back some scenes trying to create a large scale that can’t be fully realized since the engine can’t hold that many enemies on screen even with a ludicrously over specs PC like most gaming PCs would be today. However even when the game itself can’t realize the massive world and scale of everything going on the story pulls through and does the heavy lifting. The main plot itself is rather simple, it follow your created character becoming the Inquisitor and expanding your influence to slowly figure out who killed the Divine and created a rift in the sky which eventually turns out to be a returning Corypheus from Dragon Age 2 and then you uncover a lot more things about him, the nature of dark spawn and the mysteries of Thedas as you work to beat Corypheus once and for all. The 3 DLC are 2 main story expansion and an epilogue, the first being Jaws of Hakkon which expands the world into previously uncharted lands further making the world of Thedas feel alive and well thought out as you interact with the Avvar people who basically share nothing besides their species and language with the rest of Thedas as well as uncovering the secrets of the first inquisition in what feels like a fantasy Indiana Jones jungle adventure at times just being incredibly satisfying. Next was The Descent which expands even further into Dwarves and the Deep Roads finally making them feel as cool as the series has always wanted you to think they were, the plot is a simple go down and explore what is causing sudden earthquakes and the resolution to it while leaving you with a bunch of new questions expands on dwarves in fascinating ways that I hope The Veilguard explores more through Harding. Finally you get to quite possibly one of the greatest pieces of DLC ever made with Tresspacer, the third and final story expansion set 2 years after the events of the campaign where an Exalted Council is held by your current Divine to see the future of the Inquisition post Breach and political pressure from both Orlais and Ferelden as a Qunari invasion starts within Eluvia Mirrors (teleporters to a different dimension) as you slowly uncover the mystery old the olden elven gods and why Solas left after the defeat of Corypheus then learning that he is in fact the Dread Wolf, the legendary trickster god who defied the gods and imprisoned or killed them as your mark which turns out to be his doing starts to slowly kill you. Trespasser alone is worth getting into Inquisition with how fantastic it’s quality is, I cannot stress enough how cool of an epilogue plot it is and how it’s unlikely anyone will quite be able to do it like they did.

Inquisition as a whole package is incredible with how it weaves a story spanning the entire continent through it’s side quest and DLC and a pretty fun fantasy story in it’s main plot as you live and breath along with everything in Thedas in a medium that is inherently the best at making worlds feel lived in. Few do it like Dragon Age and none do it better, Skyrim gets a lot of props for being “immersive” but that is only true superficially, if you truly wanna see what a believable world is then go ahead and give not only Inquisition a chance but also the entire series including material outside the games, it’s all great and you get to visit so many places that you basically come to know Thedas as if it was a place you’ve actually lived in. I wish I could write more about how great this game and experience was but I feel like The Veilguard will cover some territory that I want to mention here so I will save it all for that.

[lazerv4]

Deadpool & Wolverine

Just my raw thoughts not a review or anything

BE WARNED, THERE WILL BE SPOILERS

It’s been a while since I left the theater immediately wanting to rewatch the movie I just saw but Deadpool & Wolverine somehow managed to succeed at the task with flying colors and while it’s easy to tell it’s not for everyone, if you are a chronically online person that likes Marvel enough to keep up with rumors and developing projects, this movie is a love letter to you. The movie begins with the thing that had everyone worried the most, how will this movie work while also not tarnishing Logan, well the answer is Deadpool find Wolverine’s skeleton and proceeds to use it to kill like 100 TVA guys as he dances to Bye Bye Bye by N*Sync in probably my favorite action set piece in MCU history (maybe it’s recency bias but I really did like it a lot), it's ridiculous, it’s funny and fully gets you on board with the tone of the movie while also dropping the opening credits in a memorable set piece which I would compare to the iconic Devil Trigger opening of Devil May Cry V just with a very different tone. After this opener we flashback to catch up with Deadpool and see him very down on his luck as not only has he given up superheroing but Vanessa left him and he now works a dead end job as a used car salesman, the movie doesn’t linger on this for long as we get to a small celebration of Wade’s birthday with all of the Deadpool cast from the previous movies making an appearance before the TVA interrupts and takes The Merc With A Mouth to their headquarters to give him the signature new costume for a new sequel and pitch him the idea of joining the MCU which he seems on board with until they mention his universe being destroyed which upon further explanation we learn is because of the loss of their “anchor being” which is a person so important to that universe that without them it starts to slowly deteriorate until death in this case that would be James “Logan” “Wolverine” Howlett as portrayed by Hugh Jackman through all the previous Xmen films ending with his death in Logan.

And so begins Deadpool’s journey through the multiverse to find a replacement Logan in a roguish attempt to save his universe stumbling upon many iconic points in Wolverine’s history such as the X hanging, the Hulk fight and what I thought was General james Howlett but sadly I was wrong, that said we still get a few other versions of Wolverine like a height appropriate version of Jackman as well as a surprise cameo version played by Henry Cavill. All this comes to an end when Deadpool find a drunk Wolverine fucked up enough that he can take him back only for the TVA representative Paradox to explain to him that this is not how this works, that is in fact the worst Wolverine and he wants that universe destroyed ASAP so he is gonna hurry this along by sending them both to the Void from Loki. The bulk of the movie takes place here and it’s mainly an excuse to have a ton of memorable cameos as right of the bat we meet Chris Evan as Johnny Storm reprising his role from the 2005 Fantastic Four as well as almost every minor villain in the Xmen franchise until they are taken to meet our main villain Cassandra Nova who is played expertly by Emma Corrin and has some wicked powers that enhance her presence. Skipping a little both Deadpool and Wolverine escape the grips of Cassandra fight a lot and then meet the resistance compromised of Dafne Keen’s Laura/X-23 from Logan, Wesley Snipes’ Blade from his late 90s early 00s trilogy, Jannifer Garner’s Elektra from Daredevil and her own movie in the early 00s and Channing Tatum as Gambit from a doom project film that just never happened after being stuck on development hell for years. This dumb group of misfits is the heart of this movie, as they start an assault on Cassandra Nova to help Deadpool and Wolverine we get a showcase of what makes them all so great or in the case of Gambit what could have made them so great as they touch on every aspect that made them cool with Blade even repeating his iconic ice skating line as well as fixing the issues the character had previously like with Elektra in just a great action sequence that is also gonna be an all timer before they are teleported back to their reality by an unwilling Cassandra who happens to have one of the teleporting rings from Doctor Strange which she uses to also come to their reality so she can absorb the timeline destroying bomb and gain even more power because she is just a girl boss like that I guess. To do this, she employs like a good 50ish Deadpool variants that we know get to see our main duo fight with Jackman finally putting on the iconic cowl which just makes it so much better as they manage to kill all the Deadpools before realizing that they also have Wade’s signature healing factor which means we are stuck here forever but then the unexpected happens as Peter shows up and apparently all Deadpools love their Peters and he begins to be celebrated which allows our main characters to go and try to stop Cassandra. Upon finding Paradox the duo learns that the only way to stop the telepath now is by fusing the dark matter and the normal matter reactor which would kill them so they prepare for the worst before Deadpool tricks Wolverine into staying outside and goes for the sacrificial play as he struggles to make it before Logan manages to break in and gives Wade his hand and stabs his claw into the reactor triggering the reaction which causes an epic orchestral choir version of Madonna’s Like a Prayer to start playing as we see both our heroes hanging on as the machine starts to beat Cassandra and eventually kills her before it all blows up and the timeline’s health is completely restored. The movie has a dumb little fakeout trying to convince you they both died but it’s short because we know they are built different and they come back to wrap up the film before deciding to get some shawarma and then Deadpool asks Wolverine if he would just like to stay with him to which he agrees as we see both sharing another meal with Blind Al before the camera turns to their masks and the movie wraps.

The audience for this movie might be niche but as someone that is (un)fortunately in it I had a blast and loved every second of it, I can more easily look past all it’s flaws and weird inconsistencies like wtf even are anchor beings because the movie was made for the very obsessive rumor crazed fans like me to have a good time and I would be lying if I said getting something like this wasn’t incredible. I loved this movie and will probably continue to even if I do start noticing more of it’s flaws. It might not be the highest most intrinsically made piece of filmmaking but sometimes you don’t need that and just a lot of heart will take you there and this movie has that in strides. The credits go through a lot of b roll and blooper footage from all the Fox films in a nostalgic but also sort of reverend way mourning the past but also celebrating all that it did, the Fox universe was not perfect but it definitely got the perfect send off.

[lazerv4]

Thoughts on Palm Springs [REWATCH]

Just my raw thoughts not a review or anything

Wooh another time loop but this time it’s about cynicism instead of action set pieces.

Palm Springs is a comedy drama about what would happen if you were stuck on the same day forever which sounds miserable but hear me out, what if suddenly you had someone else there with you.

The plot is very simple and straightforward as Nyles played by Andy Sandberg doing his usual archetype has been stuck in a wedding time loop for an undisclosed amount of time but from context clues it looks like it’s been a while, he does his thing and accidentally gets Sarah (portrayed by Cristin Milioti) stuck in the loop while running away from Roy who is another guy trapped in the loop with him that hates his guts and since everything is guilt free he just goes for it every few days and hunts Nyles down, oh yeah he is also played by J.K. Simmons so he is basically the perfect side character. As Sarah realizes she is stuck and gets Nyles to explain the situation they go through many different arcs as you probably would through what is implied to be at least a few months if not years of them just fucking off and doing whatever during their consequence free existence until it becomes exhausting.

The movie handles the idea of the time loop in a very mundane and refreshing way as there are not many ambitions to it, it instead focuses on the emotions of the people stuck on it. It’s a cool and interesting movie as well as being pretty funny and a very competent romcom, it’s also criminally underrated and maybe if you are interested on the topic of time loops at all give it a watch, I think it stands up to the likes of Through the Flash, All You Need is Kill, Majora's Mask and Groundhog Day (I haven’t played Outer Wilds but I heard it’s up there) as one of the best uses of the concept.

[lazerv4]

Thoughts on Perfect Blue

Just my raw thoughts not a review or anything

Metaphysical narratives about a character losing their mind is one of the most compelling and fascinating types of character driven stories you can tell. The sheer intensity of not knowing what's real and what's fake keeping you on edge constantly can be exhilarating while also being very intriguing and thought provoking, a few of my faves include House of Leaves and The Rehearsal but this is not about them, this is about an even older story by the name of Perfect Blue, a classic by the late Satoshi Kon, Perfect Blue tells the story of Mima, an idol singer who following her retirement from the group CHAM to pursue acting starts getting stalked by an obsessive fan whose actions begin to slowly deteriorate her mind and drive her over the edge as the line between herself and her celebrity persona starts to blur and separate at the same time. The movie flows spectacularly between scenes generating incredible paranoia, confusion and awe as it creates a sense of madness in the viewers as well slowly putting you in the same mental state as Mima. I’m trying to be as vague as possible with it because Perfect Blue is a film best experienced blind and I don’t wanna be the reason someone’s viewing experience is worse in the contrary in a weird way if you’ve never heard of Perfect Blue and this is your first interaction with it I encourage you to watch it, even with the little I’ve said I might have said too much so just take the plunge and go watch Perfect Blue.

[lazerv4]

Thoughts on Edge of Tomorrow [REWATCH]

Just my raw thoughts not a review or anything

LIVE DIE REPEAT

LIVE DIE REPEAT

LIVE DIE REPEAT

Time loop movies are one of my favorite niche concepts and the book All You Need Is Kill is one of the bests at doing it so a big budget adaptation championed by Tom Cruise with Emily Blunt costaring as the Full Metal Bitch and a script by the guy who wrote The Usual Suspects and the best Mission: Impossible entries you sit down and watch.

The whole concept of Edge of Tomorrow is that a very amateur soldier accidentally taps into a time loop power by having a specific alien’s blood fall on him and little by little he becomes more and more proficient at combat as well as solving the puzzle that is that specific battle till he can find a winning condition. Since this is presented as the story of a person rather than a game it also takes a toll on his psyche that is not that touched on but it plays a small part that leads to the ending which completely breaks the gimmick to add some stacks because yeah.

There just isn’t much to say about the actual movie rather than the book and this isn’t about the book so just enjoy a really good action movie with a really interesting gimmick that also happens to have the Mission: Impossible people flexing their creativity to the fullest extent. Basically it’s great.

[lazerv4]

Thoughts on The Boys Season 4

Just my raw thoughts not a review or anything

The Boys is finally back after an extended break (I know we got Gen V in the middle but idk) and is here to finally show us what is going on with our favorite group of edgy vigilantes and the answer is not very much and what is there is kind of disappointing.

Season 4 is a mess, an ugly, brash and thoughtless disaster of random plotlines that I wish were better handled but as a set up season for the 5th and final installment it suffers greatly. 

Butcher who is performed phenomenally as always by Karl Urban gets a very interesting dynamic with a fellow comrade Kessler played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan doing a really good job as the guest this season (not to the extent of Jensen Ackles did last season as Soldier Boy but that is literally impossible to top) and is one of the more fascinating characters until it’s revealed he is just a hallucination and a lot of his potential is squandered. Hughie (Jack Quaid) for his part is almost entirely disconnected from the story till the incredibly controversial and disgusting with Tech Knight and some not very well handled parts with Erin Moriarty’s Starlight were their romance seems threatened and gives poor Annie a completely lackluster season between that and her underexplored Planned Parenthood-esque storyline. Frenchie and Kimiko get the worst this season as both their plots come out of nowhere and are dropped randomly so I’m gonna do the same, sorry Karen (Fukuhara) you were great but they gave you trash. And last but not least MM (who got a surprising transformation, good on you Laz (heh) Alonso) has an interesting will he wont he type story about if he will stay in the game or leave for his family and his own health which I hope continues into Season 5.

Now the bad guys which will frankly be shorter, Starr as Homelander is the same as always, a good performance that is kind of losing it’s luster a little but it still has a funny and terrifying aura when properly utilized and I’m really looking forward to his Donal Trump era next season.  Chance Crawford’s Deep and Nathan Mitchell´s Black Noir (version 2) start a funny and dumb partnership now that Noir can talk and they lightened up the mood significantly when they were on screen even if they are both horrible people. Jessie T. Usher is the stand out this season as A-Train gets an atonement arc that made him really endearing and frankly my favorite character this season which seems so bizarre when they show opens trying to convince you he is the biggest piece of shit but man has the guy grown, he is still a cocky asshole but he now tries to be a decent and even sometimes just a straight up good person and I really do hope he makes it out of this. And finally the newcomers Sister Sage and Firecracker portrayed bySusan Heyward and Valorie Curry respectively are a great addition to the cast both in being a cynical egomaniac that works behind the scenes and a new hate sponge that does everything despicable you can think of, specially with both of them being original creations they were implemented with great care and attention that just worked well with the dynamic of the show.

And now the neutral characters I guess? Caludia Doumit’s Victoria Newman suffers a lot from lack of commitment and bad character writing this season which is such a shame now knowing (for obvious reasons) that this is her last season while Ryan (who is supposed to be like 13 but Cameron Crovetti looks way older than he even is) gets something similar to MM with a will he wont he but poorly executed in comparison and it just kind of makes me dislike the character a lot.

There were other cool characters and cameos like Giancarlo Esposito finally coming back to play Stan Endgar but at the same time we got Maddie Philips struggling to act even with a character as one note as Cate is in this show.

The Boys season 4 was a big mix bag let down but it still has some redeeming qualities, hopefully a lot of it’s issues have more to do with the fact that it’s a set up season and less with the writers not knowing what to do anymore.

[lazerv4]

Thoughts on V for Vendetta [REWATCH]

Just my raw thoughts not a review or anything

The film adaptation of the seminal graphic novel by Alan Moore is not as good as it’s source material (shocker) but it’s a bombastic, creative and stylish action movie that still gets to keep a lot of the surface level things that made V for Vendetta so interesting.

In very broad strokes the story follows a young woman who upon meeting a terrorist on a night out while he prepares to strike at their totalitarian government is accidentally dropped into the conflict to function as our POV of the situation. The terrorist who’s name is V is a revolutionary man of the people and interestingly obsessed with the Gunpowder Plot who serves as the driving force of the story as he little by little takes down the totalitarian government through a year showing Evey (the young woman mentioned previously) all the faults of it. The story is anarchistic in nature but the movie makes it a little more muddy and centers it more on the “People shouldn’t be afraid of their governments, the government should be afraid of it’s people” philosophy that V so elegantly speaks of.

The film has some issues making it’s own story work but it shines in the performances and the action sequences, for the first Hugo Weaving is giving the performance of a lifetime entirely through physical acting and his voice giving a lot of life and humanity to a character that has no face at all and whose mask is decidedly stuck in a pacific emotion that he just doesn’t show much of. On the other side of the coin Natalie Portman also gives an incredibly compelling performance showing the emotional journey of Evey as she goes from a scared young woman who follows orders into a hardened defying fighter who isn’t afraid of even her own mortality through events that transpire in the later half of the movie. A lot of smaller roles are also outstanding with the late great John Hurt doing a terrific job as the dictator Sutler, Roger Allan also does a fantastic job as Lewis Prothero the propaganda king and celebrity opinion new anchor (what we now call a Tucker Carlson) and Stephen Fry closes out the performances I wanna single out bringing a lot of warmth and kindness as Deitrich. As for the action sequences we have a few but the main popular standout is the slow mo knife sequence at the end of the film which makes it pretty obvious that director James McTeigue has worked most of his career with the Wachowskis as your can see their fingerprints all over the cinematography as well as how the script (which they wrote) weaves into them to created pure catarsis when the time comes and we get incredible one liners with them like the ever iconic “Beneath this mask there is more than flesh. Beneath this mask there is an idea. And ideas are bulletproof” which is one of the many many great lines thrown through the movie, another being “A building is a symbol, as is the act of destroying it. Symbols are given power by people. Alone a symbol is meaningless, but with enough people, blowing up a building can change the world.” as well as propelling into the cultural zeitgeist “Remember remember, the 5th of November'' along with the now incredibly iconic mask of Guy Fawkes which has been sadly co-opted by a bunch of dorks online who wanna try to look edgy and cool.

V for Vendetta is a great time and a fantastic movie, just not the greatest adaptation, while I do recommend watching it I also recommend reading the original graphic novel and vice versa as the movie is still exhilarating and incredibly well made deserving a spot in history as some of the most memorable iconography ever made.

[lazerv4]

Thoughts on Beverly Hills Cop

Just my raw thoughts not a review or anything

This movie is really fun.

Beverly Hills Cop is very much a 90s blockbuster action comedy in all the best ways possible, it is funny, cool and very entertaining in a simple way, the film won’t challenge you in any way but it’s not really trying to, it just wants you to have a good time and I did.

Eddie Murphy plays Axel Foley, a Detroit based police officer who is too cool to follow protocol and has some other 90s-isms. The main plot centers around an old friend of his getting murdered and him tracking down the crime to Beverly Hills where he has to somehow prove the guy he thinks did it did it (spoilers he did it) through often absurd methods and some pretty good if illegal investigating. Axel also sports one of the most iconic themes of all time that has been a little separated from this franchise because of a dumb frog meme and a Monsters vs Aliens reference, but it is god tier and while it is remembered we should give credit to the actual composer Harold Faltermeyer instead of Crazy Frog. My only real complaint is that the rating is a little arbitrary and the decision for it is strange as the movies is very PG-13 except for those strange moments when Eddie Murphy drops the hard r n word or they show strippers topless but besides that the humor and even the action is very kid friendly as people are shown getting shot but there is little to no blood or gore even when at the very end someone gets shot like 15 times in very quick succession.

I’ve heard the original sequels get worse as they go and I haven’t heard anything about the new one Netflix released but I might give it a watch now if it’s even half as fun as this one was.

[lazerv4]

Thoughts on Hotel La Rut (破爛酒店)

Just my raw thoughts not a review or anything

A delightful little surprise that I stumbled upon by accident, which I know is supposed to be based on a sketch but I haven’t seen it and I really don’t think the record needs it as it stands on it’s own incredibly well. Hotel La Rut is a I wanna say pop/contemporary/jazz record mainly but it also has some jazz, cabaret, lo-fi, ska and just way more just constantly switching genres actually which is crazy interesting for a concept album like this. The story of the album is small vignettes about different things that happen in the titular Hotel La Rut as well as some instrumental tracks that mainly serve to set the mood, a lot of whimsy and drama is oddly mixed to deliver the stories of the different people staying at the Hotel or working there as hijinks ensue. The tales are diverse from a haunted house to a guy hunting pigeons with a water gun filled with bleach so it certainly has variety for everyone.I really can’t express how much I encourage everyone to listen to Hotel La Rut, it might be my favorite album (and album cover) of the year so far (sorry brat) and always makes me vibe with whatever it gives me. So don’t deprive yourself of the creativity, intrigue, versatility and magic that Hotel La Rut brings to the table.

[lazerv4]

Thoughts on Scaring the Hoes + DLC Pack

Just my raw thoughts not a review or anything

One of the most unhinged crossovers in the history of rap, just two weird ass motherfuckers doing exactly what they promised so don’t play this in front of the hoes. This is gonna be the thought that breaks me in how trash I am about expressing myself deeply about music but I’m gonna try to make it work. JPEGMAFIA one of the two rappers in this record also produced all of it and it sounds fantastic and interesting in ways not often seen because well he was using an old school machine instead of a modern tool which compliments the weird exploitation vibe the cover art brings. Danny Brown on the other hand brings in some incredible flows and as usual some great lines that just give it that special flavor that makes the album incredible. As for the DLC Pack it adds 4 new pretty good songs with HERMANOS and NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! (yes that is the full title) having some incredible production. I’m not good enough at this to express how good Scaring the Hoes so become hoeless because it’s never been more worth it.

[lazerv4]

Thoughts on Live Through This

Just my raw thoughts not a review or anything

There is a lot to talk about around Hole and specially Courtney Love, her influence, her importance to the history of rock and grunge, her many many misdeeds and controversies as well as the inevitable talk about her relationship with Kurt Cobain, but this is all besides the point, yes art can’t be separated from the artist but art also needs to be contextualized to the time it came out and the pure rawness (in the older meaning of the word), anger and complacency of Live Through This as well as it’s expertly written and performed songs hold it up alongside it’s contemporaries as a must listen from the era and just a great album over all.

Love portrays this image of herself through it where bitterness and bitreal have taken control while her lyrics remain analytical and preordained in a contrast similar to the look she chose for the band mixing classic femme stylings with more grungy and angry approach that made Hole stand out in the grunge genre which was very male oriented. 

The way the songs develop through a lot of personal themes like the feelings of being a female rock musician not willing to step away when becoming a mother and the backlash, sexual assault (which contrasts really interstingly with how Kurt wrote about it), the marital troubles of being with Kurt in his state of mind as well as specific events from her life like when she briefly lost custody of their child. 

Live Through This will sadly always be overshadowed by the tragic loss of Kurt Cobain a few days before the release, Courtney Love’s chaotic public persona and it’s more popular younger sibling Celebrity Skin but I do think it’s a record not only worth going back to but also keeping on rotation, it’s a very intense and fascinating album and one of the premier examples of grunge music that just hasn’t been giving it’s due. Hole rightfully deserves a spot next to Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Sonic Youth, The Smashing Pumpkins and whoever else you wanna add to the greats of grunge, a seminal band and some of the greatest musicians in the genre as well as delivering one of the greatest albums in it.

[lazerv4]

Thoughts on Strobo (Vaundy Album)

Just my raw thoughts not a review or anything

This is gonna be a quick one, I listened to this entire thing without realizing, I though a few songs were good, specifically Tomoshibi and Fukakoryoku but I wasn’t really blown away nor was I disappointed because I wasn’t really looking to listen to this album specifically or write about it. It’s enjoyable enough I guess.