Gold Cobra – Limp Bizkit

To the chagrin of many people I’m sure, Limp Bizkit is back with a new album after 6 years. Let’s cut to the chase: it’s a Limp Bizkit album through and through so it’s not going to win over any of the people that have hated them. To be honest I think they have just about everyone to win over because it’s been so long since the band was popular. They didn’t leave on top in 2005 when Unquestionable Truth broke up the band, leaving the impression of 2003’s Results May Vary (which wasn’t well received) the last material many have heard.

I’ll go straight to the good stuff. There are a lot of terrific ideas on this album musically. Wes Borland is a fantastic guitar player and he really came up some cool shit on here. Bassist Sam Rivers and drummer John Otto roll around with him perfectly, they keep pace and run with Wes’ riffs really well on much of the album. DJ Lethal sounds like he’s more in the background here throwing in some sound effects and breaks here and there.

Now the bad. Fred Durst. To the point, his amateur lyrics. I’m not a Durst hater, I genuinely like his voice and he hasn’t done anything wrong to me personally so I have nothing to hold against him. But good lord, does he write some garbage. The most basic rhymes you can think of, references that really don’t make sense and he just can’t get far enough from the meathead rap play book.

It’s like running down the Durst checklist: stupid fighting shit, frat boy nonsense, trying to write another “Breakstuff”. All the things that were popular for the band can be remade! Well, no. More than a decade since the bands hay day, you’d think Durst would be able to grow up. This stuff coming out of the mouth of a 40 something year old is just really goofy.A choice bit from “Douche Bag”:

Douche Bag! I’m a fuck you up. Douche Bag. I’m a fuck you up.
fuck you fuck you fuck you up.

That’s basically the chorus and they end the song with that repeating for almost 50 seconds. Who in the studio thought that was a good idea? It’s annoying AND lazy. Fred loves name dropping his own band. Still! He still loves doing this shit:

John Otto! Break it on down!
That’s right!
Ladies and gentleman!
Once again… Limp Bizkit!

…in case anyone forgot what band they were listening to.

From “90.2.10” we get the party angle, with an awkward reference AND the self name drop:

Corey Taylor got a harem chasin him around.
We ain’t slippin with his knot, then we goin down.
But it doesn’t got this lovin comin at me.
Ain’t nothin new cause I’m rollin with the LB!

What does that Slipknot reference even mean? Another weird ass reference with a side shot of 8 year old rhyming from “Gold Cobra”:

Feelin Korn going blind
Free as hell doin’ time
I’m insane can’t complain
Flush you turds down the drain

Now it’s not all misery. “Why Try” has some good music behind it and tolerable lyrics. “Get A Life” has an awesome break down at 2:30. Such a cool guitar/bass/drum groove. “Shotgun” starts generic but at :48 this simple, catchy, creative riff kicks in with the appropriate bounce and thump beat from Sam and John.

The songs that are on the slower side are the best. “Walking Away”, “Loser”, “My Own Cobain” and “Angels” are real stand outs. “Angels” in particular is one of my favorites. These songs are where Fred takes more of a singing approach. There is much more careful thought to the lyrics, they sound sincere and honest. His lyrics and voice mesh perfectly with the music allowing the creativity of the band to come together without any stupidity getting in the way. It’s much more enjoyable to listen to. There’s even some metal like screaming at parts which work well. The rap/rock fusion works it’s best in such instances.

I like most of Gold Cobra, but I can’t see this album taking off. The time for this music might simply be over and the toxic end the band had leaves no favors out there for the band to reach out for in the public.

Television! The Summer season!

Since the standard TV season is over, the summer series has kicked into high gear.

Top Gear (UK) is back in full force and good as ever. I think the US edition comes back on at the end of this month too. True Blood, the best trash on TV is back as well and the character arc changes they are making a pretty smart. The series was getting ultra whiney by a lot of the characters and many of them have grown up and changed in the first 2 episodes so that’s promising.

Real World/Road Rules challenge is back on (“Rivals”) and I just watched my first episode so that’s always fun to watch. Weeds is back too, which at this point I think I watch just out of habit now. They always do something to keep me watching and I genuinely like the characters. Last season had a crazy ending and they’ve jumped the timeline ahead 3 years which was a surprise for me. Much like True Blood a lot was getting stale so the writers have found a new road to shake off some shackles (plus the actor that plays Shane has become a man since last season and grown like a foot and a half, so that helps explain that). Still a bit early to see if it’s worked, but I’m hopeful.

I’m watching Franklin & Bash and Falling Skies on TNT, which are both new. I think F&B is the first lawyer show I’ve put any time into and I like it. Falling Skies is filling my sci-fi spot in place of Fringe (which had a fantastic season) and The Event which was canceled (bummer since the final few episodes were very good too). Wise choice with starting the show 6 months after the alien attack, we can avoid the expected “shock and awe” beginnings there and get on with things faster. Show seems kinda slow so far but it’s still intriguing. It’s 4 shows in so far and we’re getting a better take on the invading force, which I like.

Comedy is going strong with Wilfred and Louie on FX (continuing their awesome original programming line up, year round) and Futurama on Comedy Central. Last weeks Futurama in particular was really funny.

Transformers 3 the Review

Dark of the Moon lumbered into theatres recently and after being insulted by how bad Transformers 2 was, I was really wary of this one. I enjoy Michael Bay movies, I know what I’m in for when his summer blockbusters flash their stuff. Transformers 2 was a rushed trainwreck of a movie and I’m happy to see that Bay and his team pulled their shit together and made a fun movie to watch again.

The Decepticons are up to no good again, setting a trap for the Autobots to bring their home planet, Cybertron, back from the ashes. The human race isn’t going to come out on top if the Decepticon’s plan comes to fruition. Shia LeBeouf and most of the previous cast are back to run around the Autobots feet while all hell breaks lose. Hey, some humans need to help out the giant robots save the planet. Of course the movie has it’s fair share of problems, long run time that could have been pulled in here and there, forced humor, really awkward moments (the talk in the RV with Sam and his parents comes to mind first), but the movie makes sense and is often a lot of fun to watch. There are some really great action scenes and the mindblowing special effects (really some of the best CG ever put on screen, there’s many parts where it looks like there are real giant robots being filmed. Amazing composite work between CG and live action). It’s still cool just to see Optimus Prime and company transform! The addition of filming in 3D was done with a lot of care and it shows. Bay took all the right advise and kept just about all of it to adding depth to the scenes instead of that terrible “pop out at you” stuff. The technology forced him to shoot in wider and longer takes and that just helped every action scene pop and be memorable. The action scene on the highway was thrilling and the squirrel suit jump team sequence was some fantastic filmmaking. Carnage never looked or sounded so good.

Transformers 3 is a Michael Bay movie that works well. Knowing that, you’ll know what to expect so you can set your expectations accordingly. But lets be honest here, Transformers was a terrible cartoon to begin with. We ain’t talking about sterling source material to begin with. It won’t win over any of the hardcore haters, but you can’t please everyone all the time.

True Grit the Review

Last years Oscar contender, True Grit continues to prove that the Cohen Brothers are easily one of the best film makers working today. A remake of the book of the same name (and movie from 1969), it’s such a treat to watch a bad ass Western these days. A classic tale of revenge, young Mattie Ross hires a Marshall, Rooster Cogburn to find her fathers killer, Tom Chaney. She’s a tough girl who won’t take no for an answer, hell bent on seeing Chaney be punished for his senseless crime.

True Grit is awesome from top to bottom. A great script that is surprisingly funny is brought to life by a fantastic cast. Jeff Bridges (who has been on a roll these past few years), Josh Brolin (him too, thanks to the Cohens as well) and a surprise casting choice with Matt Damon as LeBeouf fill out the main cast. But the real star here is Hailee Steinfeld as Mattie and she’s amazing. The entire movie rides on her shoulders and she kills it in every scene. She’s relatively new to the business and at 15 years old her performance was that much more impressive.

Watch it!

Movie Quick Hits

Some recent stuff I’ve watched that can be summed up in 5 sentences or less.

Hereafter– Follow how 3 different people from 3 different walks of life deal with death. Clint Eastwood directs one of the most boring movies I’ve seen in quite some time. Matt Damon lends his star power to this snooze fest.

Twelve– A young drug dealer who really doesn’t dig life gets his world flipped over when his cousin is killed. Everything he calls on as a constant in his life ceases to. I usually dig these types of movies, but this one didn’t work for me and I’m not really sure why. The cast was decent but I think the journey wasn’t terribly interesting. Watch the amazing movie Pusher instead.

A.I. Artificial IntelligenceThis was the last movie Stanley Kubrick worked on, which Stephen Speilberg picked up to see it to completion. Wild sci-fi movie that I’ve been meaning to watch since it came out in 2001. Haley Joel Osment was The-Kid-Actor of Hollywood at this point and he did a remarkable job as David, a robot boy adopted to a family when their own sun is cryo-genically frozen until a cure for him is found. When the son comes back, David is cast out on his own to his bewilderment. He sets out on a journey to become a real boy so his family will take him back and love him. It’s a spin on the Pinocchio tale set in the future that really makes you think about what being human really means. Some crazy animatronic work by the late Stan Winston is in full effect in this often very visually striking film. I didn’t like the end though, it took a really weird turn there.

The Mechanic-Jason Statham laces up is action shoes again for this one. Arthur is a Mechanic (see: hitman) who is very good at his job. After he’s forced to take down a friend, he ends up taking his friends son as an apprentice, to teach him to channel his anger into this new, specialized line of work. The Mechanic is a solid action movie. Statham does his usual quality work here, the direction is good, the action is fun and often inventive and there are enough twists that keep things interesting (even if they are predictable).

Summer Solstice

Happy Summer everyone! It was a overcast today but the sun busted through for most of the day. Very nice right now so we’re off to a good start. We’ll see if the thunderstorms in the forecast for the rest of the week will come to fruition.

The Fighter the Review

Another Oscar favorite from last year, The Fighter stands tall next to other cinematic favorites like Rocky and Raging Bull.

Getting punched in the head is a dangerous profession. Equally so when you’re family is just as dangerous as the guy you’re facing in the ring. The Fighter based on the story of Micky Ward on his final run to become a boxing champ. With the help of his older brother Dicky as his trainer and his mother as his manager, Micky is stuck between a rock and hard place. With a brood of Boston sisters nipping and snapping behind him, Micky and his new girlfriend, Charlene, stick together to make some changes when the family status quo clearly isn’t working.

This is a hell of a movie. When Mark Wahlberg actually gives a shit about a movie, he puts in some fantastic work. This was a passion project for him and he had the great benefit of being able to act with Christian Bale as Dicky. They work incredibly well together, they really do come off as real life brothers. Often really funny even with a sad scenario, Dicky has a crack addiction that robbed him of his future, one that he wants his younger brother to obtain. Rounding out the wheelhouse is Melissa Leo as Alice, the mother of the 6 sisters and 2 boys. A maniac in heels, she steals almost every scene she’s in.

Such a good movie packed with great writing, actors and direction. The boxing scenes are terrific too, everyone should watch this movie, one of 2010’s best.

X-Men: First Class the Review

……..and the franchise is saved! After the train wreck of X-Men 3 and the embarrassing Wolverine movie from the passed 3 years, the X-Men flicks were all but ready to be forgotten. First Class cleans things up and shows us this universe has a lot left to offer audiences.

Turning the clock back to 1962, we watch as Professor Charles Xavier and and Erik “Magneto” Lensher step in front of the mutant movement and become the leaders of the two factions of the “next evolution of the human race.”

It’s a great idea going back to seeing how the two most powerful (somewhat arguable) and influential mutants in the X Men world befriended each other and ultimately split over ideological differences. It’s a well written and smart movie directed with a careful hand by Matthew Vaughn. Excellent casting and acting (I’m a big fan of James McAvoy and Michael Fastbender is a terrific Magneto) and some top notch special effects make the world come to life. Seeing the Cuban Missile Crisis in an alternate universe is a really cool experience and a great political and social backdrop for the story.

While the movie falls into some problems like comic book cliches (get to know you and training montages), odd changes that anger nerds (Havok is actually Cyclops younger brother, neither one of them would be alive at this time) and does run a bit too long at just over 2 hours. I’d say the biggest problem is that most of the mutants are unknown to most people so at times it doesn’t really feel like an X-Men tale. That said there is still a lot of respect given to the source material. Many nods to the series storied past giving winks that only comic book fans get and setting up characters and events for future stories. There are some great cameos tucked in here as well which are great additions.

Great job making this flick, which is not only a great summer blockbuster, but a great action movie in general. Gives great hope that the series is back on track and has me looking forward to the next one.

The King’s Speach the Review

The King’s Speech won 4 very deserving Oscars this passed year. I wanted to see it based on the accolades and word of mouth buzz the movie had since it came out. I knew very little about the plot going in and what one would think would be a boring art film is actually a touching and brilliantly told story.

King George VI of Britain never wanted to be king, a reluctant hero (figure head really) to say the least. He was forced to step up in place of his struck-dumb-with-love brother and had a rough go at it. The good king had a brutal stutter since he was a child and as such had the self esteem and confidence of a wet mollusk.

It’s very human story that many people can relate to. King George had very pressured upbringing surrounded by a wall of unsympathetic people. As an adult he truly was the product of his environment. Stepping into the biggest public speaking role you could ever imagine KGVI seeks the help of many speech therapists who fail until he finds Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush). This brilliant Aussie helps good George become a true King.

While technical praise for crafting this film from every department is necessary, The King’s Speech is carried entirely on the shoulders of Colin Firth as King George and Geoffrey Rush. Their acting ability and on screen chemistry elevates this movie to award winning territory. I don’t think the movie would have worked without them, they’re that impressive. Helena Bonham Carter is also notable as King George’s wife who is pretty much his rock through out the movie. As the saying goes, behind every good man is a better woman.

I’d recommend this to anyone, it’s a great movie with a lasting story that is rooted in our history.

UK TV cleanup

Skins Series 4- While not as good as the first 2 series, I came to like the 2nd generation cast. I think JJ is my favorite followed by Cook who had some very good exposition about him. He change through the course of the show and came out as a genuine nice guy opposed to the raging shit he was at the start. The writing for the parents on the show was much better as well (especially Kate and Emily’s family which got the most time out of any family in the show), which I really appreciated. In series 1 and 2 all of the parents are played as worthless jokes with dialog to match. But, the ending was incredibly frustrating. The first generation of kids all had cliff hanger endings, but you knew where they were and had a good idea of what they could be doing. The 2nd generation has the crazy twist at the 2nd to last episode and then the last scene of the series is one of the biggest cop-outs I can remember in a long time. The fate of that character is going to forever be unknown which I hate (and it could go either way…plus that storyline had incredible ramifications to the story). Series 5 recently ended on the BBC so I have to wait for that to hit on DVD, but I’ve read that the new cast stinks.

I watched the original UK Shameless to compare it to Showtimes version (which I love). The original came out in 2004 and only made it through 1 series at 7 episodes. Showtime made 12 episodes and used every plotline from the original, but expanded and altered some of it to really flesh it out and changing things for the better, I think. I was actually surprised how closely it sticks to the original keeping everyone’s names the same (and look too). The casting is really great on both sides and I think the Showtime edition really honors the original while making it’s own path towards the end. Some of the UK edition feels truncated which the SHO writers changed. I like how they did Sheila’s agoraphobia “breakthrough” more and Frank’s adultery disaster is set up much better, which will be the first bridge to cross in season 2. I’d probably recommend the SHO edition over the original because of the changes and not having to decipher some hardcore English accents and slang. Makes it easier for a US viewer to get into.

Keeping with media from across the pond, I just found out the Arctic Monkeys have a new album out (Suck It and See) which I must check out.

Summer is here!

Sure it’s really Spring still, but the fantastic weather has finally showed up. It rained for almost 2 weeks straight so 73-80 with just a few clouds hanging out with a sweet breeze is like being reborn. I feel so much happier it’s stupid. I really want to move to the West coast, I hate winter with a passion now.