Best Of 2017 | Film

Howdy!

This is one of my favorite posts, but I don’t know why, I have a tiny theory that it has something to do with the fact that it’s like a mini review to all of the movies I’ve watched this year, but what’s funny is that I only made up last year’s post because I just needed to release my thoughts on how horrible Gods Of Egypt was, but as I was writing the post I realized how fun it was to do that!

I think I will change it up for 2018, because since I create my “coming soon” movie posts twice a year, I feel like I should create another one of these posts so I’m not keeping it all locked up in my head and it’s not so damn long either. I just might do that considering I had over 30 movies on a notepad of all the movies I had watched this year! Oh, and don’t worry next Monday you should have the first half of 2018’s new movies to be released!

I was going to do this in the same way I did last year’s post, but since I have so many movies that it would be really long and I don’t need to be working on this post for days on end, so I’m hoping a simple rating system will suffice for you guys and maybe next year I’ll break them up and it won’t be so damn complicated for me. The rating system will be 1 out of 10, 5 being neutral or so-so.

Underworld: Blood Wars – 7
Split – 9
Resident Evil: The Final Chapter – 8
Logan – 8
Beauty and the Beast – 6
Wonder Woman – 10
Finding Dory – 9
The Legend of Tarzan – 4
Star Trek: Beyond – 8
Morgan – 9
Doctor Strange – 4
Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them – 10
Sing – 7
The Comedian – 6
Dirty Grandpa – 6
Jon Wick Chapter 2 – 10
How To Be Single – 10
Mother’s Day – 8
Me Before You – 9
The Secret Life of Pets – 6
La La Land – 6
The Accountant – 9
Inferno – 8
The Arrival – 8
Jackie – 7
Hidden Figures – 9
Passengers – 7

What were some of your favorite movies that came out either late 2016 or all of 2017? Did you have any that you absolutely hated too?

Best Of 2017 | TV Shows!

Howdy!

I had a rough time figuring out when I was exactly going to put these posts up as there’s not much room between Christmas and New Years to put up more than one post, but then I realized maybe this was the reason why I only write three posts a week? It’s not, so don’t worry but it was a nice thought to have in the middle of the chaos though!

I’m doing the list of favorite television shows I watched in the spring and fall schedules. I do have to point out that towards October 2016, I basically stopped watched majority of the shows like This Is Us, Notorious, The Arrangement, Timeless, and Speechless. I felt as though I had too much going on at night throughout the week so I cut back on almost everything I was watching at the time. Once January came around though, I became very hesitant about what I wanted to watch. Thankfully everything on this list was kept me entertained and focused.

Victoria (PBS – Jenna Coleman, Tom Hughes, David Oakes, and Rufus Sewall)

I loved Victoria! It premiered on PBS I think either in early December or January, my gut is telling me it was early January though.

I don’t know much about the Havorians, I’m actually only just now learning about “The Mad King” and his son George IV and the regency era. I didn’t even know that much about Queen Victoria. My focus of British royals goes from Plantagenet, Tudor to the current family Windsor. This show gave me a lot of new information to digest, and I really love Jenna and Tom playing both a young Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. You get a nice insight of their lives before they were married. I actually can’t wait to see what happens in season two when it comes to us in the US next month!

Taboo (FX – Tom Hardy, Oona Chaplin, and Jonathan Pryce)

Now this shouldn’t be a surprise to anybody, but I really enjoyed this show. My dad and I don’t really watch the same shows very often but we did watch the crap out of this and it was nice to talk about a show the day after it came on. However, I would have to do it before he watched his Vikings because he usually was distracted by the series of events that took place on that show. Thank god for both Facebook and Twitter though!

This show was a bit of a mystery, some of the things featured in the eight part series, still confuse me. For it to be called “taboo” I don’t necessarily know what the taboo would be, then besides the incest part. I liked the creepy undertone though, I like learning about Britain’s gritty past.

The White Princess (Starz – Jodie Comer, Jacob Collins-Levy, Michelle Fairley, Essie Davis)

I had been looking forward to The White Princess after I finished watching the first series of the House of York kings in The White Queen. The show was based on historical fiction writer Phillipa Gregory’s about King Edward IV and his consort Queen Elizabeth Woodville,  and their oldest daughter Elizabeth of York and how life went for her after the death of not only her father, but her brothers and uncle, Richard III. And how she came to marry her enemy: Henry Tudor.

I ended up reading Alison Weir’s book Elizabeth Of York: A Forgotten Tudor Queen in January and this show started in mid-February. I actually finished reading the book like the day before it premiered and I will never do that again! I wasn’t open-minded like I was with the first one. They also butchered a lot of historical events to fit into this world and I think that was what bothered me the most actually!

The Mist (Spike – Alyssa Sutherland, Morgan Spector, Gus Birney)

 Before I start writing out what I thought about this show, apparently I should have swallowed my pride and watched it live because maybe they wouldn’t had cancelled it. Yes, it’s no longer on air, but it is on Netflix if anybody wants to check it out.

Considering the fact that two Stephan King movies came out this year, The Dark Tower in early spring and the classic It back in September, I’m surprised that this didn’t have a good rating. I thought it was creepy but maybe not enough for hardcore Stephan King fans I guess. Oh well, thankfully for me there’s a book that I can get now.

Midnight, Texas (NBC – François Arnaud, Arielle Kebbel, Peter Mensah, and Persia Fitz-Henley)

Just when I think I’m finished with the vampires, this show turns up! If you’re wondering why I said that is because this is based off of a book by the author who created the True Blood series. It wasn’t all about vampires, but it had almost every supernatural being that you can think of really, and as much as I liked this, I feel like this will probably be cancelled too.

The Deuce (HBO – James Franco, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Margarita Levieva, and Emily Meade)

As much as I liked this show, I never exactly finished it. I think I stopped on episode four, so that’ll mean I have about five episodes to watch.

You know how I said that my dad and I don’t watch too many shows together, my mom and I are about the same too. I recorded the first episode and she thought she had done it herself, so picture her face when she finally watched it. Apparently it was a lot more racy than she was expecting it to be. She wasn’t too sure why I liked it, but then again neither do I! It’s about the early days in the porn industry and somehow the character or characters that James Franco plays (because he plays a pair of twins!) go into creating the media world too. So now you understand why my mom was basically freaking out a bit, because it show quite a bit!

The Sinner (USA – Jessica Biel, Christopher Abbott, and Bill Pulman)

This was a surprise for me. I don’t have USA as part of my list of channels on my guide so the day I saw the previews for it was probably the week they premiered episode three. Like the one above, I never finished the series but I would only have to get caught up on the last two episodes though.

When mom was in the hospital recovering from her surgery back in October, she saw the commercials still circulating for the network. So she’s now interested, but yet hasn’t tried to rent or recorded them yet. I would like to see what she thought of it, but I fear she’ll freak out about the scenes with Bill Pulman though, if you’ve seen the show, you know what I’m talking about here. In a way, it goes with what I just explained above!

The Gifted (FOX – Stephan Moyer, Amy Acker, Sean Teale, and Janie Chung)

This is unfortunately another TV show that I have yet to finish. I’m really hoping that this is On Demand or Netflix, because I really enjoyed this a lot. The main reason why I stopped watching it was because the setting was confusing me. It is set when the X-Men have disappeared. You hear the term “Sentinel Service” a lot, so I’m guessing everything takes place if Wolverine wasn’t successful when Dr. Trask built the Sentinels in X-Men: Days Of Future Past. I pretty much like everything about it, the characters and their stories. It’s a little strange seeing Stephan Moyer and Amy Acker back on my screen again. I’m very behind it on it and I’m really not happy with myself at the moment.

Damnation (USA – Killian Scott, Logan Marshall-Green, and Sarah Jones)

The story is about the rich and poor, but based in the 1800’s. Farmers need to sell their goods to stores in their counties, to be able to provide for their families, but when the price to sell the stuff is too low, until an interesting man wants to spark a revolution to try to help the farmers. You see the point of view through both the farmers and businessmen throughout the Midwest and Northwest states and how they deal with the strikes.

I think after watching Taboo my dad and I have been looking for shows that either have similar themes or look like the show as far as the gritty, raw scenes. Thankfully, this show has everything that we both like! It has the unruly and yet historical background. One thing that I know my dad will be happy about is the fact everybody is speaking in an American accent. And the reason why I said “will be” is because he hasn’t even watched the three or four episodes in his folder on our DVR yet. He hasn’t even watched his newest Vikings episodes either! He’s been enjoying Netflix lately!

Have you watched any of these new shows yet? Did I miss any of the others? What else do I need to check out?

December Playlist

So this is the last playlist of 2017!

Now you’re probably wondering why I’ve decided to publish this on Christmas? Well, in order to achieve my three blog posts a week routine, I needed a starter and since the holiday does land a Monday I thought, why not? I also thought about how sometimes people start their Christmases so early that they casually stroll on the web to check on their socials and whatnot, so that was my other reason for this too.

Mama by Jonas Blue
Falling Down by Duran Duran ft. Justin Timberlake
Stay In The Dark by The Band Perry
Wolves by Selena Gomez and Masrhmello
I Did Something Bad by Taylor Swift
Kiwi by Harry Styles
Thumbs by Sabrina Carpenter
We Runnin by Tommee Profitt and Beacon Light
Carol Of The Bells by Lindsey Stirling
Ding Dong Merrily On High by Celtic Woman

If you haven’t had enough of Christmas music, I’ve listed every Christmas song that I’ve listened to, my favorites of the three reviews I did and the movies I’ve watched in the past month at the top of the actual Spotify playlist. I’ve been on a nostalgic kick lately so I’ve included a lot of hip hop songs from the early 2000’s in it as well. Hope you all enjoy it! I will not stop putting music on there after tomorrow, so you’ll have to come back next week to see what else I’ve put in it!

Since this will be my final playlist of the year, I decided to put all of the monthly playlists I’ve done throughout the year at the bottom, plus the wedding playlist since I just added that instead of doing a whole “July” playlist and I also put the annual summer on there too! I’m also going to attempt to update my Review tab at the top, as I haven’t added anything since probably June or maybe even a little earlier than that.

January | February | March | April | May | June | August | September | October | November | Wedding Playlist | Summer 2017

Album Review: “Kaskade Christmas” by Kaskade

So this will be my last post for Blogmas 2017! And I’m kind of happy about that because I’ve reviewed three Christmas-y albums and since I do these ahead of time, I ended up getting my fill of Christmas music all in one week basically. However, I have had a lot of fun rediscovering old favorites and then on top of that seeing what other artists can do to these traditional songs that we enjoy hearing over the holidays!

So we’ve had Celtic Woman, which is all female Irish group and then there was electric violinist Lindsey Stirling, and now we have a male artist to finish out the last week before Christmas. His name is Kaskade and he is an American DJ who tends to do house music, which is like a lighter form of dance music. I don’t know how to describe it other way than that is it mellow, almost chill but still upbeat in tempo to dance to. Kaskade has released several albums over the years, plus he’s remixed other artists and DJ’s tracks, one of my favorites is of Swedish duo Galantis’ “U & I” that came out in 2015.

I actually haven’t noticed other DJs’ creating new sounds to well known Christmas tunes, but if anybody was willing to do it, I’m glad it’s a veteran to try it out! Like with Lindsey’s album, I did not listen to any of the songs before writing the review, so we will be going on this little adventure together. I do not know how many of these will be instrumental, as he has quite a few guests on here, but the others that don’t feature anybody at the side doesn’t mean that nobody but Kaskade on the other side and as far as I know, he doesn’t sing on any of his tracks.

Are you ready to begin?

Since Kaskade is a well known house producer, I’m not going to lie, I was really curious but also hesitant to know what exactly was going to be blasting through my speakers. The first song is “Christmas Is Here” and the introduction has a very soft, full of strings, and you hear Late Night Alumni’s voice and she has a mellow, voice that meshes well with the upbeat sound of the entire song. It has a nice groove to it. The second is “Cold December” and it doesn’t say who the male singer is in the background, but it’s another great uptempo holiday themed track. I really like the addition of the horns, I thought they were interesting element to put into a simple beat. Next, there’s “Deck The Halls” with featured singer Erika. This should be a familiar song for everyone, but the sound itself is different of course. It has that nice playful, Christmas-y mood built into the beat. Erika’s voice has a low quality, where the lyrics but where it doesn’t feel overwhelming.

We have “God Rest Ye” and it instantly has this R&B and soulful sound. The singer lending her voice to this track is Debra Fotheringham. I don’t really like the full on hip hop remakes of Christmas, I think they can get too much, so to say that I enjoyed the crap out of this is an understatement I think. Next there’s “O Come Emmanuel” with Miss Skylar Grey and I liked the mysterious, chill beat to back her soulful vocals. I think she brings out so many emotions in anything she does. It’s almost sexy. Can I say that with talking about in holiday themed track? Especially one that you mostly sing out loud in church? My favorite “Silent Night” is after that and it features Ilsey, and I love her voice too! She has such a sweet, but electric tone. I don’t know if I liked this version so much though. I mean, when it’s just Ilsey and the slow drum beat, it’s not bad but whenever she stops, the tempo is gone and it’s weird. It’s hard to describe. I was a bit disappointed with it.

“The First Noel” with Gabrielle Current is on after that one. I enjoy discovering new music, but I’ve been having fun finding these Christmas or old hymns that I haven’t had in a while. I think Gabrielle’s voice sounds like Ariana Grande, just a lot less overwhelming. I have nothing against her, but she tends to go crazy with her vocals sometimes. Anyways, I like the mellow beat to this one. You can easily dance to it, but it still keeps you in that Christmas-y mood. We have “In The Bleak Midwinter” and this has Kayrae, another artist that I haven’t heard of before. I’ve actually only heard of Skylar and Ilsey, so as I’ve been listening to these songs, I’ve been discovering these new singers too! I don’t think I’ve ever heard of this song. My luck and this would be an original track! The beat for this song is very eternal and chill, the only way I can describe it is if you were having a Christmas party on the beach, this is what you’d be listening to on repeat.

Next is “Holy Night” and it features Erika once again. And everybody knows this a classic song for the holidays. so I think I’ve been quite critical to these tracks, but I think I approve of this one. Erika’s voice is gorgeous against the piano and humming beat that goes up in sound until it disappears after she’s ended that verse. The beat as a whole is set at the mild tempo, but more elements are being added towards the end. I really wanted more of that drums! “It’s Beginning To Snow” is on after that, and this doesn’t credit anybody on the vocals, but the holiday theme kind of takes a backseat on it. The beat is definitely more upbeat and what you’d sort of expect for any electric dance musician to do. And of course, it’s the shortest one on the album too!

We’re almost finished and we start with another classic “Santa Baby” is next and it features Jane XO and it has that modern feel to it, but it kind of also has this jazz-y sound to balance it out too. It’s fun and interesting! Next we have “Winter Wonderland” and everybody should know this one too! There wasn’t a featured singer on this, but you hear a mysterious male singer in the background in this echo-y effect. The entire track is weird, it doesn’t sound anything like the original but is this really a bad thing? The beat is nice. It has these playful notes in it, but I find it confusing. Lastly there’s “This Christmas Night” with Dia Frampton. I don’t know this song, so it could be a classic that I haven’t heard in a really long time or it’s an original, who knows? I like it though. It’s another one of those where you could play while you’re partying at the beach!

This was probably the most interesting reviews I’ve done! I’m all about finding music that isn’t played ten times in an hour on pop radio stations, so the fact that the last Christmas album I review is the probably the most outlandish was kind of cool! I don’t listen to Christmas music on full blast throughout the month of December like most people do. Anybody like me that is the same would probably enjoy this album more than other two, even though Lindsey’s wasn’t that “shove down your throat” type of records, I still think this was the milder version of them, if you get what I mean.

Are you the type that likes it when artists go all out on their Christmas albums? What did you think of “Kaskade Christmas” too?  

Book Review: The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

Everybody loves a good conspiracy. 

The first full day I spent at the nursing home back in October, a CNA was pushing me down to my nana’s room for breakfast and we passed the smaller activity room on our way there and I saw this book staring at me and it was semi dark in the room so I was still shocked that I even saw it at all. A little later, my nana and I went exploring and we went in here to check out the rest of the books and I ended up grabbing it on our way out the door. I stayed there eight days and read over 200+ pages!

Now I have watched the movie but I had only seen it once and it’s been a few years since I’ve watched the whole thing. I’ve finally caught up on the other two films, but I didn’t know they were based off of books! One thing that is definitely different from the two is that the movies are out of order of the books. I found that out the hard way! There’s a character in Angels & Demons that comes up in this book too but it’s only a few times, but it can still get kind of confusing at times!

If you don’t know what the book is about, it follows a Harvard symbolist professor Robert Langdon, he is in Paris, France doing a lecture for his newest book and he gets called up in the early morning that he is needed by the French police to help, the curator of the Lourve, Jacques Saunière is dead. When Robert tries to crack the code on Jacques’ body, they are interrupted by a cryptologist Sophie Neveu and she tries to help Robert and French police captain Bezu Fache figure out not only who killed Jacques but why he would basically mutilate his body in such a way.

The second batch of people in the book starts with the story of Silas. A character that I remember wasn’t explained very much in the film. The name “Silas” isn’t his real name, he was given the name by fellow Bishop Aringarosa after he rescues him. Silas is an albino with a troubled past and he wants to help Aringarosa’s cause of the Opus Dei and find the Holy Grail, even if he has to kill the leaders of another secret society the Priory of Sion.

The story itself has a lot of information. And I mean, a LOT of stuff that you need to digest at one time. It does make you question everything that you’ve been taught like if you went to church a lot as a child. It does make you wonder about if there is some truth in the bible, if it’s just made up by people. I’ve always questioned the belief in that, although I do believe in a higher power and I think they do watch over me, but I don’t know if it’s a God. And the possibility of Jesus having a child with Mary Magdelene has fascinated me for years too! It is just interesting to read about the other things that could be true.

If you like conspiracies like me, you will love this book as a whole, but unfortunately I had a lot of cons about it too. I absolutely hated the writing style. The chapters were incredibly small. You’d go back and forth on the different point of views of the many characters, when you’re only given a page and a half on each person and the events that followed. Another thing that gets on your nerves is that the author will include both French and Latin, which is fine, but it’s only later in the chapters that he actually adds some of the translated words at the end. So you literally have no idea what went on with those characters unless you have a dictionary for both languages!

I grabbed the last book of series Inferno, on the last day I was there. I have been thinking about whether or not to go ahead and read it, because there is also another book before it. Yeah, not only did I read book two, I also found out that there’s a third book that I never knew about at all because they haven’t done a movie about it. They were supposed to though. I’m hoping there won’t be much included in The Lost Symbol so I can go ahead and check that out, but I think it’s just best to wait until I can purchase that book and attempt to stay in order here.

Have you read The Da Vinci Code yet? Or possibly watched the movie? What were your thoughts about either one? And let’s not get on the discussion of religion, okay? Let’s be respectful here.