#listened to a star fox zero soundtrack

[mavisartstuff]

Hee hoo hey uh

New art lul

[bluecoolr]

The NO-SKIP Albums: A Tag Game 🎶💖

rules: share the albums that you can listen to nonstop. those lightning in a bottle-albums that scratch ur brain just right. every single track, an absolute banger. u could not skip one if u tried. no notes. stunning, show-stopping, immaculate. ur no-skip albums.

🔎 bonus & optional (but imo, v fun) rules: 1) add a track rec for us to listen to! AND 2) share ur favorite line(s) from that track! 👀

Thank you so much @ace-of-hearts-and-spades @ventiswampwater and @visceravalentines for tagging and thinking of meeee! 🥹💕

No pressure tags: (if you've already done it please ignore me 😅)

@goldrose-star @ajarofpickledtears @probably-a-plant-thing @mintgalaxia @slaasherslut @madbadash @the-pinstriped-hood

1. Glass Houses - Billy Joel

This was one of the first records I bought with my own money.

Check Out: You May Be Right

You may be right I may be crazy Oh, but it just may be a lunatic you're looking for

2. Bram Stoker's Dracula Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

I have this on CD lol. This is very special to me because this is one of my favorite movies ever, and a college friend gifted it to me when she had to move cities. I put it on while reading because the vibes are just delectably evil and eerie 🖤

Check Out: The Beginning

This plays throughout the opening scene of the movie and is just deliciously dark, the swelling crescendo with the choir and sinister whispering gives me goosebumps everytime. It's also perfect for imagining your oc's going through their villain/corruption arc hehe

Check Out: Love Song for a Vampire - Annie Lenox

This track walked so Christina Perri's Thousand Years could run. But seriously, it's such a bittersweet song. The cover by Collin Rae? Ray? I forgot his name is also good.

Oh, loneliness, oh hopelessness To search the ends of time For there is in all the world No greater love than mine

Just PINING. SO MUCH PINING.

3. Gone Now - Bleachers

I don't know what it is about this album, but something in it just scratches my brain right. The sound is very synth-y, but there's a lot of sax and sample overlays that I really like. The whole theme is about death and dissatisfaction with where you are at the moment.

Check Out: Everybody Lost Somebody

I think pain is waiting alone at the corner Tryna get myself back home, yeah Looking like everybody Knowing everybody lost somebody

4. Hozier - Hozier

Need I say more? Zero thoughts when this man comes on for real.

Check Out: In A Week (please for the love of god listen to it)

And they'd find us in a week When the cattle show fear After the insects have made their claim After the foxes have known our taste I'd be home with you I'd be home with you

Check Out: Work Song (cliché but self-explanatory I guess)

I just think about my I'm so full of love I could barely eat (HRRRRGJHKHKK HELLO???)

and

When my time comes around Lay me gently in the cold, dark earth No grave can hold my body down I'll crawl home to her (sobbing actually. Help.)

5. Wasteland Baby! - Hozier

Every song is good but this line from Would That I is just 🤌🏻✨️

I mean?!?!?

True that love in withdrawal was the weeping of me That the sound of the saw must be known by the tree Must be felled for to fight the cold Fretted fire but that was long ago

Anyway, that's it. Thanks for listening to me ramble 🫢😚

[relicsongmel]

Tell me the Pokémon music thoughts??? :000

TWO whole Pokemon music asks WOOHOO!!!!! These past few days I’ve been on a kick of listening to Scarlet and Violet’s OST and downloading my faves (since I wanted to wait until the DLC had been released and then play through it fully before doing so) and it might be one of my favorite soundtracks to date. That being said here are the tracks I’m currently the most feral about:

Battle! (Team Star Boss)

The loop for this one is almost SIX MINUTES LONG which is a smart choice for how long and difficult some of these fights tend to be—and it’s six minutes of pure unadulterated musical goodness. Obviously the killer synths and guitars are a highlight here, but what really makes this theme (and the rest of the Team Star themes) special is how the harsh instrumentation is contrasted with sections containing emotional melodies and harmonies that give a sense of determination and hope—which fits in with Team Star’s storyline as former victims of bullying and doing their best to persevere in spite of that. All their themes are also composed by one of their bosses in-universe which is a fun lore detail (shoutout to my boy Giacomo I love him <3)

South Province

This one basically functions as the theme of the Paldea Region—this leitmotif (composed by our beloved Toby Fox) appears a LOT in various places within the soundtrack, particularly in cutscenes. It’s a great theme for exploring out and about in the game’s open world, and the sunny A major is a great key choice which is always a win in my book. I’m also a big fan of the piano version that plays while you’re walking in the overworld (as opposed to using your mount Koraidon/Miraidon) as well as the beautiful arrangement used at the end of the main story (if I had a nickel for every time a piano theme at the end of a Pokemon game made me cry I’d have two nickels. Which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it happened twice).

Showdown! (Champion Kieran)

I haven’t had a lot of time to get myself acquainted with much of the DLC soundtrack, but I wanted to include at least one in this list because there’s a lot of quality stuff worth shouting out. This is the last of Kieran’s three battle themes (technically there’s four but the final one isn’t a full battle and is mostly comprised of Terapagos’ motif as opposed to his own so I’m omitting it here) and there’s an interesting transformation that happens across each of them—it starts out mostly with traditional instrumentation and only mild chromaticism (which almost all battle themes have at least a little of) but transforms into something harsher by adding electric guitars/synths and more dissonant, darker harmonies (this one makes heavy use of Phrygian and Locrian elements—Phrygian is a mode that’s very similar to the minor scale but uses a flat 2nd scale degree, so for a piece in E minor like this one that would mean using an F natural as opposed to an F#. Locrian is the same as Phrygian but with a flat 5 added as well, meaning B♭ as opposed to B natural. These flat notes serve to darken the overall sound), which corresponds to Kieran’s arc of becoming bitter and resentful as he suffers repeated losses at the hands of the player. I’m also tickled by the fact that his battle themes are all in E minor which is the softest and gentlest minor to my ears—you can hide under those edgy guitars all you want Kieran but we all know you’re still baby :3

Area Zero

And we’ve saved the best for last because this is hands down my FAVORITE theme from this game; it’s not even a contest. I have such a vivid memory of playing through Scarlet for the first time a year ago and being incredibly intrigued about what was hiding in the massive crater at the region’s center (I tried flying/leaping in with Koraidon and lurking outside the Zero Gate yelling “LET ME INNNN” more times than I can count lmao)—and I was not at all disappointed when I got there because this is straight up one of the prettiest areas in the whole game. However. HOWEVER. NOTHING could have possibly prepared me for the breathtakingly beautiful music that accompanies this place—I remember stopping in my tracks as soon as I heard that low brass kick in, and then the chanting. Oh my lord the CHANTING. Honestly I was sold right then and there but WE’RE STILL NOT DONE MAKING THE MUSIC OF THE GODS BECAUSE SWEET MOTHER MARY THAT SYNTH????? TOOK ME THE FUCK OUT—I lose my everliving shit at anything even resembling an erhu in music because its voice-like timbre is so…raw and emotional in a way I really don’t know how to describe; all I know is it rocks me to my core to the point that I have to watch my breathing when I listen to a piece that has one lest I start hyperventilating (because it’s powerful enough to literally induce a physiological response out of me). Needless to say I was frozen in place for at LEAST ten minutes just to take it all in; that initial experience was utterly magical and I wish more than anything I could go back in time to live that feeling again.

But that very long preface aside, there are a couple other things about this piece worth noting—the first being that E♭ minor is an IMMACULATE key choice in my opinion. In my synesthesia it primarily represents what I call “the crushing black weight of despair,” but it also functions very nicely in any intense, high-stakes situation, which fits beautifully with the circumstances surrounding Area Zero in-game. It’s a walled garden filled with invasive wildlife from the distant past/future that poses an imminent threat to Paldea’s ecosystem should they find a means of escaping to the outside; in fact, we learn from the professor that some species have already managed to do so. I also quite like how the instrumentation is vastly different from every other piece of music you’ll hear in Paldea’s overworld, which has primarily been orchestral arrangements up to this point—but here, it’s a blend of primal and futuristic sounds that perfectly captures the collision of the present and the past/future. So yeah if you couldn’t tell I am so so so so unhinged about everything this theme represents and I fully expect to be just as mentally unwell about it YEARS down the line (because believe me, I’ve certainly got the track record for it).

Scarlet and Violet’s music is just so so good—and again, obligatory “this is just the tip of the iceberg that is everything I love about this soundtrack” but I hope you enjoyed my insights into what makes this music so special!

[layranh]

This looks like fun ;

I really don't have one, but I like the whole concept of Dawn FM - The Weeknd

I love you - Billie Eilish

Me cuesta tanto olvidarte-Mecano

Last Christmas-Wham!

I have been fan of Shakira since I was 4 years old!! And this my fav song of her : Hips don't lie - Shakira, Wycelf Jean

Cinammon Girl-Lana del Rey (I'm in my Lana era💞)

Feel Good Inc - Gorillaz. (I used to listen music with my best frend in class and I remember this song that I haved listen before but i didn't know the name, I loved it so much and then I searched it, and yeah it's a good song)

Omg there's alot of songs... But I feel that the most relevant r : Less than Zero-The Weeknd ; Everything I wanted - Billie Eilish ; Clocks and Speed of Sound - Coldplay.

Physical and Levitating - Dua Lipa ( My aspiration to be free and enjoy life while dancing. I also feel that I'm a "star /vanilla and nature girl" smoothie

Tu si sabes quererme-Natalia Lafourcade ft los Macorinos ( It's not "precisely" about where I live but it's music from my country, with characteristic rhythms from where I live , I love this song too)

Lento-Julieta Venegas ( from my country too)

Listen to your Heart-Roxette

Save your Tears-The Weeknd with Ariana Grande ; I found you-Stephen Sánchez with Em Beihold and Chamber of Reflection(acustic by Your Anxiety Buddy) -Mac deMarco

Hotel California - Eagles

Meet me hallway-Black Eyed Peas

There r alot of childhood fav songs , but this song, represent a good part : Tu no eres para mi-Fanny Lu

Lean On-Major Lanzer and I know you want me - Pitbull

Escapism-from Steven Universe ; La Bicicleta-Carlos Vives with Shakira ;C`mon-P!atd and Fun ;This is Gospel - Panic! at the disco ; Ghost-Mystery Skulls ; Save your Tears-The Weeknd

Las de la Intuición-Shakira ( I like her new songs, but I love more her old songs )

Spirit-Beyonce ; Just like Fire-P¡NK ; Roar-Katy Perry

No soy una de esas - Jesse &Joy ft Alejandro Sanz

I would say Life for the Rent-Dido and Dont Speak-No Doubt.

Kiss me more - Doja Cat ft SZA

IM a big fan of sountrascks , here r my fav ( I CANT DECIDE SORRY) : Truth,Spoils of War, The last War,The Children, Dracarys, Reign -Ramin Djawadi ; Young Love, Childrens of the prophecy ,To be close to you, Between Worlds- Lorne Balfe and The Golden Compass, Sky Ferry , Epiloge , Lyra- Alexander Desplat .And all of Toby Fox soundtracks <3

Summertime Sadness - Lana de Rey

Rainbow -Kesha , Batte Scars-Paradise Fears, and Less than Zero-The Weeknd . They taught me to keep it up going even if i was too mentally tired , to have a purpose in life and fight for it . I still learning to enjoy life as the way it is ...

Fallen Down- Toby Fox . ( I will put this soundtrack instead, since it means alot to me ...)

Mary on a Cross - Ghost . Dont get me wrong, its a pretty song bt it was SO USED for tiktok that i got tired of it XD-

GoodBye-Billie Eilish and Cake-Melanie Martinez

TAKE ON ME -A ha . No doubt

Those r the most reevant , but i like ALOT of songs

Music Asks

your favorite album opener

a song starting w/ the same first letter of your first name

a song outside of your usual genre

a song that reminds you of your favorite season

a song from a lifelong favorite artist

your current “on repeat” song

a song your friend introduced you to that you ended up loving

a song that speaks the words you couldn’t say

a song that captures your aesthetic (can be ideal!)

a song about the place where you live

a song from an international artist

a song you can scream all the words to

a reboot of a song/songs you already loved (remix, mashup, acoustic, etc.)

a song with the name of a place in the title

a song that reminds you of traveling

your favorite childhood song

a song that reminds you of a good time

a song that reminds you of a bad time

a song from an artist whose old music you enjoy more than their new music

a song that empowers you

a song from a local artist

a song you related to in the past and present, but for different reasons

your favorite cheesy pop song

a song from a soundtrack (musical, movie, video game, etc.)

the song currently stuck in your head OR the song you are listening to right now

a song that taught you a lesson

an instrumental song

a song you always skipped, but ended up loving once you listened to it

your favorite album closer

your all-time favorite song

[worldsworstmusicnerd]

2023 Album A Day: Day 69/365

Super Rite of Spring • Shnabubula

Favorite Track: Battle Against an Ancestral Opponent

Thoughts: While the focus isn’t really on Mario with this album, I thought Super Rite of Spring would be a fitting album to listen to on Mar 10, AKA MAR10 Day. This is a passion project by Shnabubula, reimagining the classic Stravinsky ballet score using the soundscapes of Super Nintendo soundtracks. While the arrangements faithfully recontextualize the original orchestral work, what’s more impressive to me is how this project showcases just how iconic those SNES soundtracks are. Shnabubula is very clever with weaving in plenty of recognizable motifs and smaller sound bites from the games he draws inspiration from, but even without any integrated game melodies, you can tell what SNES title was used for every track within seconds of hearing what MIDI instruments were used. Being able to recognize the sonic differences between the futuristic sci-fi evoking synths used for Super Metroid compared to Star Fox compared to F Zero is wild, and then you realize that it’s all being used to perform Stravinsky. It’s an absurd premise for a crossover musical project, but it is executed phenomenally and the end result is nothing short of exhilarating for those who appreciate both pieces of source material.

[nezahx]

501ST’S LEGION PLAYLIST

Songs they blast while committing war crimes with Anakin Skywalker

Captain Rex, Appo, Jesse, Echo, Denal, Dogma, Fives, Fox, Hardcase, Kix, droidbait, heavy, cutup, Cody, Boil & Waxer (Yes, I added some 212th attack battalion clones because I love them and, also the whole Domino squad is here because in my perfect word, they all made it to the 501st legion, shhh)

1-Gosthbusters-WALKED THE MOON

If there’s something strange in the galaxy, who you gonna call? 501ST LEGION. Honestly, this song fits their vibe perfectly, even if this playlist is a mere joke, I feel like they would listen to this religiously, specially the Domino squad.

2-Never Gonna Give You Up-Ricky Astley

When master Kenobi and Cody join them for a mission, they enjoy this song unironically, as well as Rex, tho he’s better at hiding it.

3-You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)- Dead Or Alive

Fives and Echo dance to this together, end of story.

4-I Want It That Way- Backstreet Boys

Fives learned the complete choreography and forced the rest of the 501st legion to do so, Obi-wan and the 212th attack battalion always watch the show and clap with proudness at the end, but Boil, Boil wonders how the fuck they’re still alive.

5-Payaso de rodeo- Caballo Dorado

Ahsoka leds the way, boss queen can dance to this in heels, she even adds the little spin, she be forcing everyone to stand up when the song starts playing.

6-Welcome to the jungle- Guns N’ Roses

So, Boil’s song, yes, can someone argue that? No.

7-U Can’t Touch This-MC Hammer

Music hits me so hard, makes me say “Oh my lord, thank you for blessing with a mind to rhyme and two hyped feet’- Ahsoka and Anakin sing to this together while the clones do dance break in the middle of the ship.

8-Who Let The Dogs Out- Baha Men

Jesse: WHO LET THE DOGS OUT?

Everyone else in the ship: ‘BARKS INTENSIVELY’

9-All Star-Smash Mouth

The idea of the tcw characters as the Shrek characters is quite a concept, Anakin is donkey, not arguing that either.

10-I’m Too Sexy- Right Said Fred

Kenobi hates this song more than anything, but that ain’t stopping Fives & Heavy from feeling their selfs.

11-The Ketchup Song (Aserejé) Spanish Version-Las Ketchup

So…Ahsoka knows Spanish and loves to sing music in that language (it haves noting to do with me being Mexican ofc…) So this is her solo, the clones and Anakin hype her up doing their little dancy dance.

12-Pump It-Black Eyed Peas

Dogma be loving this song, and no one can change my mind, also Ahsoka always sings the Fergie verse, no matter what.

13-A Thousand Miles-Vanessa Carlton

Is this a dumb headcanon with zero arguments? Yes, it indeed is, but no one will ever change my mind about it, waxer loves this songs and Kix sings and cries to it every time it plays, no one really knows why, but no one cares enough to ask.

14-Y.M.C.A-Village People

Kenobi use to sing this to Anakin when he was a child to make him feel better, he even thought him the dance, so whenever the song plays the whole ship turns to Obi-wan and expect him to do it.

15-Like a Virging-Madonna

Am I dropping more dumb headcanons about Kix? Yes, because he loves this song, but not as much as Anakin, Anakin breaks his vocal chords when it comes to signing it.

16-Wannabe-Spice Girls

Once, cut up said, ironically, that this was the song of 'The domino squad' however, heavy took it very seriously.

17-Barbie Girl-Aqua

Grupal song? group song! It’s so catchy that sometimes even Kenobi catches himself signing the ‘Come on Barbie let’s go party’ line, and even if he think no one has seen it, Cody always reply’s with the little ‘Ah ah ah yeah’

18-Dancing Queen-From ‘Mamma Mia!’ Original Motion Picture Soundtrack- Merly Streep

Please don't notice how obsessed I am with Ahsoka and her wholesome relationship with the 501st clones, Rex always sings this song to Ahsoka, along with the rest of the clones as a magnificent choir.

19-Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)-Backstreets Boys

Fives has a bit of an obsession with the Backstreet Boys, but Echo won't let him die alone, so he always sings the little 'Yeah's’ in the song so Fives won’t feel so alone.

20-Mambo No.5 (A Little Bit of..)-Lou Bega

‘A little bit of Appo in my life, a little bit of Jesse by my side, a little bit of Rex is all I need, a little bit of Kix is what I see, a little bit of hardcase in the sun, a little bit of Echo all night long, a little bit of Fives here I am, a little bit of you makes me your man’ And after coming out with that line at 3 am in the morning, Anakin knew it could’t get any better, once Kenobi heard it, he knew it couldn’t get any worst.

THANKS FOR READING!

If someone is interested on the playlist, here it is!

20 songs, 1 hour and 13 minutes long, best listened in shuffle

[weirdunclegamer]

UNCLE GAMER STUFF #19

A new haul!  Sort of!  This is actually most of the physical backer rewards I got for backing the remaster of the criminally underrated Wonderful 101 game by Platinum Games.  I had kind of forgotten about the physical rewards I admit XD, I had received the game copy a while back, then time passed and we all know what that does.  Then BAM, went and checked the mail and holey moley a bunch of stuff!  There’s actually a shirt that came with it too but since my nerd shirts are gonna be their own posts eventually I figured I’d save it for that... and I couldn’t think of a way to work it into the composition of the shot anyhow.

I absolutely ADORE the Wonderful 101, it’s a great game, if damn hard, and it’s one and only major failing was... it was for the Wii U.  Yah, as with many other games being on that console was unfortunately a death knell for you if you weren’t big first party Nintendo... and even that didn’t save Star Fox Zero (an actually good game but that’s a rant for another day).

So yah, as far as the stuff in the picture though, we have the game itself (with a neat lenticular cover sleeve), a soundtrack CD, a card insert with the soundtrack listening all the songs/artists, a “centinels” (yes they spell it with a c) ID card featuring Wonder Red (no idea if everyone’s card does or if its random), a keychain, and SHITLOADS OF STICKERS.  What mostly threw me off about the stickers was the fact that they’re all cut to shape, but I was not expecting THAT many either, dang.

Anyway play Wonderful 101, I don’t care if you hafta play on easy, it’s great and just do it.  It’s just plain fun dammit.

[keithkogane]

like i have the mp3s of star fox and f-zero soundtracks lmfao if i wanted to listen to them on a separate, less convenient app i can do it for free

nontendo should die for making their own music platform instead of just putting their shit on spotify like a normal company

[krakowergroup]

OPERATION FINALE ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK

MUSIC COMPOSED & CONDUCTED BY AWARD-WINNING COMPOSER ALEXANDRE DESPLAT

(24 August 2018) – Sony Music releases OPERATION FINALE (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) with original music by Academy Award® winner Alexandre Desplat (The Shape of Water, The Grand Budapest Hotel).

The soundtrack will be available for streaming/download and on CD August 24, 2018. Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures (MGM) will distribute Operation Finale theatrically on August 29, 2018.

MGM’s razor-sharp thriller, Operation Finale, brings to life one of the most daring covert operations in modern history. Starring Golden Globe® winner Oscar Isaac (Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Ex Machina) and Academy Award® winner Sir Ben Kingsley (Gandhi, Schindler’s List), and the film vividly captures the ingenious and brilliantly executed mission to capture Adolf Eichmann, one of the chief architects of the Holocaust. Fifteen years after the end of World War II, acting on irrefutable evidence, a top-secret team of Israeli agents travel to Argentina where Eichmann (Kingsley) has been in hiding together with his family under the alias “Ricardo Klement” and execute an extremely dangerous abduction. In attempting to sneak him out of Argentina to stand trial in Israel while being pursued by the country’s right-wing forces, agent Peter Malkin (Isaac) is forced to engage Eichmann in an intense and gripping game of cat-and-mouse with life-and-death stakes.

Operation Finale is directed by Chris Weitz (About a Boy, The Twilight Saga: New Moon) from a screenplay by Matthew Orton. Oscar Isaac is also a producer, along with Brian Kavanaugh-Jones and Fred Berger under their Automatik company and Jason Spire’s Inspire Entertainment.

Alexandre Desplat says about the soundtrack: “Writing a score for the abduction of Adolf Eichmann has been a tremendous challenge. Chris and I tried to bring the audience into the mind of the Mossad squad, struggling to succeed in one of the most famous chases of a Nazi official; a criminal with no regrets or remorse whatsoever, hidden in Argentina. Organizing the train transports of Jews throughout Europe and supervising their systematic killings in villages or forests were some of Eichmann’s tasks. The music I composed tries to modestly capture these elements of tragedy and madness. A group of 10 percussionists leads the London Symphony Orchestra into a Mephistophelian dance.”

ABOUT ALEXANDRE DESPLAT Composer, orchestrator and conductor Alexandre Desplat is a two-time Academy Award® winner, nine-time Academy Award® Nominee, with over hundred scores and numerous awards to his credit and is one of the most worthy heirs of the French film scoring masters. A true cinephile, his approach to film composition is not only based on his strong musicality but also on his understanding of film which allows him to intimately communicate with directors. Inspired by the works of Maurice Jarre, Bernard Herrmann, Nino Rota or Georges Delerue, he expressed his desire to compose for film early on but really made his decision after listening to John Williams’ score to Star Wars. After scoring 50 European films, with legendary French directors such as Philippe de Broca and Francis Girod, he burst in 2003 onto the Hollywood scene with his evocative score to Peter Webber’s Girl With A Pearl Earring earning him nominations at the Golden Globe Awards®, BAFTAs and European Film Awards. His singular and remarkable scores for the films of Jacques Audiard showed a new musical voice and his composition for The Beat That My Heart Skipped in 2005 earned him the Silver Bear at the Berlinale as well as his first César. Alexandre Desplat then started to expand his U.S. career keeping his European collaborations. In 2007 he received his first Academy Award® nomination for Stephen Frears’ The Queen which earned him his first European Film Award. The same year he won the Golden Globe, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award and the World Soundtrack Award for his score to John Curran’s The Painted Veil, performed by Lang Lang. He composed in 2008 for Florent Siri’s Intimate Enemy, Ang Lee’s Lust, Caution, and David Fincher’s The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button, which earned him a second Oscar nomination and a fourth BAFTA and Golden Globe® nomination. With his score for Roman Polanski’s The Ghost Writer in 2010, starting an inspiring relationship, he won a second César and a second European Film Award. The same year, he wrote the music for Twilight-New Moon by Chris Weitz, a platinum record, Anne Fontaine’s Coco Before Chanel and for Tom Hooper’s The King’s Speech for which he won the BAFTA, the Grammy Award and receives his fourth Academy Award® nomination and his fifth Golden Globe® nomination. In 2010-2011 Alexandre Desplat scored David Yates’ films Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows, Part 1 and Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows, Part 2, which became the third most successful movie of all time. As eclectic as prolific, he wrote nine scores in 2011 including Terence Malik’s Tree Of Life, Roman Polanski’s Carnage, Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox, Daniel Auteuil’s The Wells Digger’s Daughter and George Clooney’s The Ides of March. In 2012, keeping his artistic exchange with European directors, Alexandre Desplat collaborated with Kathryn Bigelow for Zero Dark Thirty, Matteo Garrone for Reality, Gilles Bourdos for Renoir, Jérôme Salle for Zulu, Wes Anderson for Moonrise Kingdom and Jacques Audiard for Rust And Bone, the latter of which he won a third César. He also scored Argo by Ben Affleck, which was awarded the Oscar for best film and earned Alexandre Desplat a sixth nomination at BAFTA, as well as a fifth nomination at the Golden Globes® and the Academy Awards®. In 2013 he scored George Clooney’s The Monuments Men, Roman Polanski’s Venus In Fur and Stephen Frears’ Philomena, for which he received his seventh BAFTA and his fifth Oscar nominations.

In 2014, he scored Gareth Edwards’s blockbuster Godzilla and received a rare double Academy Award® nomination for his scores of Morten Tyldum’s The Imitation Game and Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel, which earned him a BAFTA, a Grammy Award® and his first Academy Award win.

In 2018, Alexandre Desplat won his second Academy Award®, second Golden Globe® Award and third BAFTA for Guillermo del Toro's The Shape Of Water.

TRACKLIST: 1. Operation Finale 2. Sacrificed Children 3. Nazis Rising 4. Malkin's Memories 5. Setting Up Operations 6. Stakeout 7. Death 8. Killing in the Woods 9. Race to Airport 10. Solingen Blade 11. Number 45326 12. The Monster 13. Lost Children 14. Air Control 15. To Israel 16. Operation Finale (Orchestral) 17. Sorrow

For more information contact The Krakower Group: @KrakowerGroup on Twitter & Instagram

[lifeonashelf]

CKY

Do any of you remember a film from the ‘90s called Shazaam?

Allow me to refresh your memory: Shazaam was a vehicle for C-list comedian Sinbad, who is perhaps best known for starring in a 1994  sitcom that was creatively titled The Sinbad Show—which I never watched because the show starred Sinbad. The Sinbad Show didn’t even last a full season on the FOX network (probably because the show starred Sinbad), but sometime either shortly before or shortly after that program was cancelled, its namesake landed the lead role in a film entitled Shazaam, a part which allowed him to stretch his acting chops by playing a wisecracking genie who acted exactly like Sinbad.

I distinctly remember seeing the trailer for this cinematic tour de force. To the best of my recollection, the plot revolved around two precocious children—one girl and one boy, naturally, to ensure that twice as many kids would beg their parents to buy the tie-in merchandise that would inexorably be produced if the film was successful—who one way or another encounter a djinn named Shazaam. Though their initial meeting befalls as a startling surprise for all parties concerned, they quickly become the best of pals and Shazaam subsequently convoys his youthful comrades through a rote series of comical PG hijinks. The specific nature of their shenanigans has been lost to the haze of time, but those details don’t matter much; a mid-‘90s movie built upon that scenario and geared toward that audience sort of writes itself (I doubt there was a subplot about Hungarian sex traffickers, for instance). I’m sure Shazaam helps the moppets surmount some sort of reasonably benign conflict and everyone learns a lesson about the true meaning of family by the time the credits roll. I’m assuming a clever dog is also involved in some fashion, and I’m confident the film features at least one protracted flatulence gag. Mind you, this is all just speculation; I can’t verify any of it since I never actually watched Shazaam (I decided not to because the trailer revealed that the film starred Sinbad).

Perhaps you already know where I’m going with this, but in case you don’t: Shazaam likely qualifies as the least successful celluloid offering ever concocted, because it is a movie which literally nobody watched. Oddly, this dearth of viewership didn’t have anything to do with Sinbad starring in it; the main reason nobody watched the film Shazaam is because the film Shazaam doesn’t actually exist. And I have a real difficult time wrapping my head around this, because not only am I ABSOLUTELY FUCKING CERTAIN that I remember viewing the trailer I’ve described, I can also readily visualize the VHS case for this movie that was never really a movie on the shelves at Blockbuster Video (imagine my incredulity when I learned that Blockbuster Video never actually existed, either). And even stranger, there are evidently thousands upon thousands of people who recall the existence of this movie that does not exist as vividly as I do.

If you kept up with the brief internet furor about this topic which arose a couple years ago, you’re undoubtedly aware the Shazaam phenomenon has been explained away as some peculiar mass delusion known as the Mandela Effect—apparently, so many human brains muddled the title and star of the ill-advised Shaquille O’Neal genie flick Kazaam that our collective hive-minds fabricated an illusory film to match our erroneous memories. (Of course, this begs the question: do those of us who remember Shazaam subconsciously wish there was a film in which Sinbad plays a sassy, flatulent genie…?). This clarification makes a kind of sense, even though my vague recollections of the corporeal Kazaam and my lucid recollections of the false Shazaam differ substantially (in my brain, Sinbad never raps or does karate in his movie, yet both disciplines factor into major plot-points in Kazaam—and Shazaam doesn’t meander into a baffling second-act detour about Hungarian sex traffickers like Shaq’s film inexplicably does).

So here’s the reason I’m bringing this up here: when I sat down to write about the band CKY, the paramount thing I intended to delve into was how I was introduced to their music. Do me a favor and keep that in mind—this information will come in handy later.

 #

  When I was a twenty-something in the very late 1990’s-slash-very early 2000’s, I worked at Domino’s Pizza as a delivery driver, which was a really excellent gig at the time. I had almost no bills and gas was a buck a gallon, so I only needed to work about 20 hours a week to earn enough money to enjoy a comfortable lifestyle. And like most twenty-something males who make their living as pizza conveyance professionals, when I wasn’t on the road, my comfortable lifestyle mainly entailed spending inordinate amounts of my free time listening to a bunch of punk rock, smoking a bunch of pot, and playing a bunch of video games.

[To be clear, not all of my co-workers at Domino’s did even one of these things. There was Dennis, for instance, who to the best of my knowledge did not enjoy punk rock, marijuana, or video games. He did, however, regularly come into work with cartons of expired baked goods that he extracted from the dumpsters behind Vons, which he would then rinse in the sink to make them “fresh” again. The prevailing rumor about Dennis’s backstory was that he was a former surgeon who had a nervous breakdown after losing a child patient on the operating table. I’m not so sure that was true, although I am very sure that he once brought in a plastic grocery bag filled with vomit instead of pastries and attempted to rinse that in the sink, too—which is why I tend to lean more toward believing Dennis was probably just fundamentally insane. There was no preamble to his unambiguously unhinged act; the dude simply strolled into the prep area at the start of his shift and said “hey, Taylor” to me like it was any other day… except he was carrying a sack of upchuck with him, clutching it right below the straps, as if girding the parcel to ensure he wouldn’t spill any of his cargo. My manager sent him home when she saw what was in the bag, but Dennis came back to work the very next afternoon—sans puke satchel—and the incident was never spoken of again. To this day, I cannot fathom how Dennis accumulated all that vomit, why he was hauling it around in his car, or what he was hoping to accomplish by soaking it in the same basin where we washed our pizza pans. Anyway, what I was getting at is that he didn’t especially fit the stereotype I outlined. We got along okay, though; I always made it a point to be really nice to the guy—you know, considering his alarming derangement and all.]

One of the staples of my Playstation habits in those days was the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series. Despite having only spent a combined total of maybe zero-point-three hours on an actual skateboard in my entire life, my best friend Andy and I logged approximately 19,000 hours guiding the avatars in those seminal games through a multitude of gravity-and-logic-defying feats which no human being could ever possibly achieve with or without a skateboard. In the real world, I probably couldn’t even pull off an elementary trick like an ollie—but in the realm of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater I was a four-wheeled fucking god who could effortlessly grind up the side of a building, soar off the opposite edge, perform roughly nineteen twisting flips on my way back down, then execute a perfect landing on the downslope of an opportunely-placed ramp so I could launch off that and catch enough air to do nineteen more flips. Though I have never been an aficionado of that particular sporting pursuit, the Tony Hawk games were incredibly fun and offered endless replay potential due to the almost pornographic extremity of their facets. The conscientious city planners in THPS’s utopia were mindful to randomly insert dozens of half-pipes and empty swimming pools all over their towns, and none of their edifices featured a single surface that could not be utilized for some sort of astonishing aerodynamic exploit.

Instead of composing an original musical score for the series, the developers of the Pro Skater franchise rather ingeniously opted to license fifteen-or-so songs by relatively popular bands for each installment. These tunes supplied the background inspiration during gameplay, and were ostensibly chosen because they represented genres which the skater demographic enjoyed—unsurprisingly, the soundtracks predominantly relied on crowd-pleasing punk and hip-hop material (although one of the sequels featured a song by Powerman 5000, whose fanbase was roughly equivalent to the number of people who have watched Shazaam). However, a cycle of only fifteen tracks doesn’t go a very long way when it’s entirely feasible to play 100 rounds in one sitting—as Andy and I regularly did. So as you might suspect, we ended up hearing the same song-batch an incalculable number of times throughout the course of any given session, which inevitably burned every one of those tracks permanently into our brains. This is how I became intimately familiar with the band CKY, whose cut “Flesh Into Gear” appeared in one of the Tony Hawk releases and was consequently submitted for my listening pleasure hundreds upon hundreds of times.

Luckily, “Flesh Into Gear” is a really cool tune, a prime slice of appealing proto-metal with an insidiously catchy chorus and a snaking stoner-rock guitar riff that would undoubtedly inspire anyone in their right mind to rail-slide across a chain of forty conveniently-equidistant park benches. I could hardly believe a song this excellent and shrewdly-crafted was coined by an outfit like CKY, since the group’s foremost point of notoriety at the time was their drummer’s family ties to one of the cast members of Jackass—an obtuse reality television showcase for the misadventures of a squad of unabashed idiots whose misguided testosterone impelled them to launch bottle rockets out of their rectums, drink animal semen, and obsessively scour the ends of the earth searching for various objects to pummel each other’s testicles with.

My persistent exposure to “Flesh Into Gear” via Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater eventually motivated me to purchase CKY’s 2002 release Infiltrate-Destroy-Rebuild, the album the track was borrowed from. I have been spinning that disc repeatedly since I started writing this, and—while the rest of the band’s material is satisfactory but un-extraordinary—every single time “Flesh Into Gear” comes on, it instills me with a rush of delightful nostalgia. I cannot remember the last time I played any of the Pro Skater installments, but with “Flesh Into Gear” navigating my recollections just like it navigated my board-wielding avatar seventeen years ago, I can still clearly visualize the games’ indelible imagery and virtually weave my way through the vast intricacies of those levels I traversed countless times back then. And these evocations are accompanied by a flood of additional splendid reminiscences, snapshots from a far simpler and more idyllic time—perhaps my very favorite phase of my life—an era free of real jobs and real responsibilities, when on any given day my best friend and I could unreservedly spend endless hours engrossed in Playstation, and the most critical concerns in our purview were what combination of toppings we should order on our pizza and whether or not we would be able to track down an eighth so we could smoke a bowl before watching that evening’s new episode of South Park.  

This is the true and immeasurable splendor of music. Even this many years removed, I can still listen to “Flesh Into Gear” today and instantly be enveloped in those potent and wonderful memories, transported back to a comfortable living room in Lakewood, sitting in front of a big-screen television beside someone who is closer to me than a brother, our fingers frenetically tapping on the joysticks which control our destinies on the monitor, beautifully oblivious to the evaporating hours because we are twenty-one and our time seems infinite and our futures are wide open and we have a whole lifetime of escapades ahead of us. On these glorious occasions, Andy and I weren’t just mindlessly zoning out on some silly skateboarding game. We were ardently devoting ourselves to having fun, pure and unadulterated fun, the kind of serene merriment you only get to have for a woefully short yet richly blessed period of your existence, the kind of immaculate and untroubled amusement you don’t realize you won’t ever experience again until that phase of your life imperceptibly cedes to the next and the ravages of the real world begin to methodically devour your body and your soul. We were also laughing, a lot, often so vigorously and exuberantly that our giggle-fits overtook us in irrepressible paroxysms that brought tears of elation to our eyes. Simply by being in the same room with each other, we were celebrating just how special a friendship that spans literal decades truly is, and how singularly magnificent it feels to spend time with people whose mere presence has the ability to make you happy. So, it didn’t ultimately matter how many times we heard “Flesh Into Gear”. I never got sick of that song. Who could ever get sick of laughter and happiness?

The list of CKY’s quantifiable merits isn’t an especially long one. Nevertheless, they created something which conjures a surge of jubilant memories that I will never forget, and would never want to. Thus, they will always occupy a warm place in my heart, a place where they are inextricably tied to one of the most joyful epochs of my life: those euphoric and carefree days when my best friend and I had all the time in the world to listen to “Flesh Into Gear” over and over and over again while we were playing Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater.

Okay, are you ready? Here comes the Sinbad part…

In the interest of accuracy, I went online to look up the Pro Skater series and clarify which installment this particular track was used in. As I said, each of the Tony Hawk releases featured a different assortment of songs, and since Andy and I enthusiastically immersed ourselves in all of them as they came out, we heard and re-heard the music on all of those playlists accordingly. I was fairly certain “Flesh Into Gear” was part of Pro Skater 3’s soundtrack, but I wanted to verify that it hadn’t instead appeared in one of the previous games before I started waxing nostalgic here.  

What I found out is this: CKY’s song “Flesh Into Gear” did not appear in any edition of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. The band did indeed supply a track to THPS3, but it was an entirely different cut called “96 Quite Bitter Beings”, which I do not have in my collection because it isn’t even on the same album as “Flesh Into Gear”. This means that for the last however-many years, I have been assigning a reverent sentimental significance to a song that, for all intents and purposes, has absolutely no relevance to the detailed web of memories I have snuggled around it. The crystal-clear recollections I have of guiding a pixilated daredevil through a labyrinth of nosegrind-ready obstacles while “Flesh Into Gear” churned in the background never happened.

Shazaam.

For the record, Andy is still my best friend, and has been for 33 years and counting. Our lives have changed significantly since our Pro Skater era, but our bond has not. Though we are only able to hang out every couple months or so at present, whenever we do, we still play video games. And we still watch South Park. And we still approach ordering pizza like the medley of toppings we select are variables in an intricate and vitally-imperative equation. And we still laugh a whole fucking lot.

Sure, I miss the old days—anyone who doesn’t miss the old days obviously wasn’t doing the old days right. Yet, despite only seeing Andy a handful of times a year and having to drive two hours to Oceanside to do so, I never get so wistful for the way things were that I neglect cherishing the way things are now. I love Andy’s wife, Neisa, and I love having a front-row seat to the incredible and inspiring marriage they have built together. I absolutely adore the two remarkable humans they created, Shae and Nixon, and I consider it the most profound honor of my life to be their Uncle Taylor. There are plenty of things I would change about my own contemporary reality, but there isn’t a single thing I would change about theirs.

Still, every now and then, I do find myself wishing I could revisit that living room in Lakewood, settle down in front of that big-screen TV with Andy, turn on the Playstation, and feel as infinite and invincible and utterly content as I did back when I was a twenty-one year-old pizza conveyance professional whose universe was far too harmonious and secure to generate even an inkling of anxiety about the present, let alone the future. If I did return to that time and place, it wouldn’t be so I could instigate any sweeping amendments or pass on some sage piece of cautionary wisdom to my younger self. No, I think I would let the pages of that chapter turn exactly the way they did. Because, all things considered, spending entire days on end doing something as enchantingly frivolous as playing Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater with your best friend in the world isn’t really all that irresponsible—it’s probably precisely what life is all about. And, you know what, it wouldn’t matter to me one bit which CKY song was on the soundtrack, just as long as Andy and I were having fun while we listened to it.  

I hope you enjoyed this piece. Even though it starred Sinbad. If you don’t mind, I’m going to go ahead and roll the credits here on that poignant note. I’ll save the story about my run-in with Hungarian sex traffickers for another time.

 July 21, 2018

[joneswilliam72]

Exclusive: listen to this gritty, soulful track “Shotgun Safari” from The O’Jays and the new crime flick Dragged Across Concrete.

Lakeshore Records will release "Dragged Across Concrete—Original Motion Picture Soundtrack" digitally on all platforms and on CD at the Lakeshore Webshop on March 22.  Vinyl release forthcoming on Invada Records. Pre-order here.

Dragged Across Concrete was directed by S. Craig Zahler (Brawl in Cell Block 99, Bone Tomahawk), which stars Mel Gibson, Vince Vaughn, and Tory Kittles. It is the grandest of Zahler's violent, measured, and character-driven genre films.  The film's music has an authentic soul sound, stylistically spanning late '60s to early '80s, composed and produced by Jeff Herriott and Zahler and enlisting the vocal talent that appeared to great effect on the Brawl in Cell Block 99 soundtrack – soul icons Butch Tavares and The O'Jays featuring Eddie Levert and Walter Williams and newcomer Adi Armour.  The film will be released in theaters March 22 via Unified Pictures and Cinestate.   

Zahler is an award-winning screenwriter, director, novelist, cinematographer, and musician. He wrote, directed, and co-composed the score for the 2015 film Bone Tomahawk, an Independent Spirit Award nominated picture (Best Screenplay; Best Supporting Actor) starring Kurt Russell, Patrick Wilson, Matthew Fox, and Richard Jenkins. The film garnered praise from critics and fans alike, including the New York Times, who called Bone Tomahawk, "[a] witty fusion of western, horror and comedy that gallops to its own beat". 

Zahler more recently wrote and directed Brawl In Cell Block 99, a New York Times Critic’s Pick, starring Vince Vaughn, Jennifer Carpenter, and Don Johnson, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival and also went onto critical acclaim. Both movies were added to the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in 2017.  

Zahler's debut western novel, "A Congregation of Jackals", was nominated for the Peacemaker and the Spur awards, and his 2014 novels "Mean Business on North Ganson Street" and "Corpus Chrome, Inc." both received starred reviews for excellence in Booklist.

Zahler's newest book is "Hug Chickenpenny: The Panegyric of an Anomalous Child", a gothic tale that he will bring to the silver screen with the help of his new creative partners (check out a free preview of the novel here), The Jim Henson Company. After reading this strange story, Clive Baker declared, "S. Craig Zahler is certain to become one of the great imaginers of our time." 

In addition to writing and directing, Zahler has founded and played in several bands, including the doomy epic metal outfit Realmbuilder, whose albums have been released by I Hate Records of Sweden. With longtime friend and songwriting partner Jeff Herriott, Zahler co-composed the orchestral score for Bone Tomahawk, and the soul music for Brawl In Cell Block 99 and Dragged Across Concrete as well as the jazz compositions for the latter. Zahler and Herriott also make music as Binary Reptile, a synthesizer project that provided the music for the "ear movie", The Narrow Caves. 

Dragged Across Concrete is the story of two police detectives (Gibson & Vaughn) who find themselves suspended after a video of their strong-arm tactics is leaked to the media.  In another part of town, a felon (Kittles) is released from prison and discovers that his family is about to be evicted.   With little money and no options, all three men descend into the criminal underworld, where danger awaits them in shadows. 

Says Zahler: "For the third time in four years, I worked with composer, professor, and my long-time friend Jeff Herriott on the soundtrack for a movie that I also wrote and directed.  This time, the picture was to have absolutely zero score, and all of the music would be sourced from radios and stereos within the fictional world.

"After our terrific experiences on Brawl in Cell Block 99 with soul legends, The O'Jays and Butch Tavares, as well as the great Wisconsin talent, Adi Armour, we had a better idea what we could achieve.  Additionally, this new movie called for a wider variety of soul tunes.  'Street Corner Felines' (sung by The O'Jays) displays the darker and funkier grooves of our songwriting heroes, Bobby Womack and Willie Hutch as does the propulsive and up tempo predator entitled, 'Shotgun Safari'.  'Don't Close the Drive In' (sung by Butch Tavares) is a lush and melancholic orchestral soul piece that The Stylistics might have performed at the start of the seventies, and 'My Magic Tricks' (sung by Adi Armour) is a funky and rockin' dance tune in the vein of D Train and The Isley Brothers.  Working with these stellar singers on our own original compositions was a longtime dream fulfilled." 

TRACKLIST 

"Street Corner Felines" – TheO'Jay's featuring Eddie Levert and Walter Williams 

"Gilded Life Of The Rich Man" – The O'Jay's featuring Eddie Levert and Walter Williams 

"Sneaking Around At Night" – Butch Tavares

"My Magic Tricks" – Adi Armour

"A Better Place For Us" – S. Craig Zahler 

"She's My Ice Cream Sundae" – Butch Tavares

"Don't Close The Drive In" – Butch Tavares 

"Shotgun Safari" – The O'Jaysfeaturing Eddie Levert and Walter Williams 

Enjoy "Shotgun Safari" below from the mighty O'Jays featuring Eddie Levert and Walter Williams and catch Dragged Across Concrete in theaters March 22.

from The 405 https://ift.tt/2YdJO1p

[obijuan-cannoli]

Ok so I watched The Last Jedi sunday morning and like every SW fan out here I have A LOT of feelings about it. Even if I rather enjoyed it, there’s still quite a lot of problems in terms of plot and characterization that really bothered me and made me question whether or not Rian Johnson actually watched a SW movie before or if he just decided to change everything for the sake of originality and shock value (he did).

So here’s a list of everything I liked and hated about TLJ, because I need to vent for the sake of my sanity (also, it’s my blog so I do what I want). Spoilers under the cut.

What I liked :

- the cinematography. Probably the best thing about the movie tbh. I don’t remember everything but here’s some shots are really liked : basically all the scenes on Ahch-To, the battle of Crait, the Finn-Phasma fight, the long wide shot of the burning Jedi temple, Snoke’s red chamber...

- new amazing creatures. Porgs are useless but they’re cute so I don’t care, I love them anyway. The nathiers and the crystal foxes are beautiful. My favorites are probably the Ahch-to’s nuns - I hope they’re ok since Rey pretty much trashed the place.

- Finn. Every time he’s on screen I’m happy. That’s the power of John Boyega.

- BB8 being the real hero of this trilogy. Please someone give those droids a medal.

- Rey calling Kylo out on his bullshit at the beginning of the movie.

- the truth about Rey’s parents (at least what Kylo tells her about, he could be lying for all we know). I really thought she would be a Skywalker but I’m actually happy she isn’t. I don’t think I would have liked the thought of Luke abandoning her on Jakku. By the way I really like that scene at the beginning when she asks Kylo why he killed his father, how upset she is over Han’s death and can’t understand how Kylo could kill a father who loved him when her own parents willingly abandoned her. She never had that kind of love and doesn’t understand giving it up so easily.

- Rey turning Kylo down in the end.

- Leia understanding she can’t turn her son back to the light anymore.

- pretty much every scene in which Rey holds a lightsaber.

- though the best scene of the movie is probably the one where the Supremacy gets cut in half at lightspeed by vice admiral Holdo with nothing but the deafening silence of space in the background. TRUE CINEMA.

- that cute (but alas) short moment between Rey and Finn at the end.

- Luke being a troll and then slapping Rey’s hand with that leaf.

- Luke being tired™.

- Luke kissing Leia on the forehead with that lens flare.

- Luke winking at C3PO.

- Luke giving this force projection a whole new look like the fashion icon he is.

- and Kylo loosing his shit when Luke appeared on the battlefield.

- Hux’s “do you think you got him?”.

- I’m still in denial about Luke’s death but that last scene with Luke’s theme song and the two suns mirroring Luke’s introduction on Tatooine in ANH... I was crying real tears folks. I didn’t want Luke to die but at least he had a beautiful death.

- LUKE.

- to continue with the soundtrack, John Williams re-used a lot of music from the original trilogy but I loved it anyway and I’m always a sucker for Luke’s theme song (obviously).

- also seing that slave kid at the end using the force, looking at the sky in hope while holding the Rebellion sign just made me so emotional. It reminded me of young Anakin in TPM.

That’s all for the fun part. Now...

What I didn’t like :

- the character assassination. I’m not going to go into too many details about Luke because I know pretty much everyone agree with me. Luke is a symbol of hope, he believed in his father and managed to bring him back to the light. Darth Vader, the man who terrorized the galaxy, cut off Luke’s hand (among other things), tortured his sister, etc. It makes absolutely ZERO SENSE for him to try to kill Ben (who is his nephew, keep that in mind), especially since he hadn’t even really done anything really dark yet. Running like a coward and refusing to help the Resistance when it’s on the verge of extinction doesn’t make sense either.

- also can we talk about what they did with Poe’s character? They turned him into a complete f*ckboy. He doesn’t listen to any of his superiors, even Leia who’s literary the face of the Rebellion and has been doing this shit for forty years. He gets A LOT of people killed by being reckless and never apologize for it. So I know it’s a complicated situation, everyone is on edge and people will die to matter what decision is taken but still. I really didn’t like this Poe, please give us back the Poe Dameron we all love in the next movie.

- Holdo. I only like her last scene (and her hair).

- Finn. Not really any problem with Finn’s character but more like the lack of Finn in the movie. I don’t know, Finn and Rose’s interactions are cute but in the end they don’t get much done. No time with Rey except for that last scene. I don’t know I just feel like we didn’t see him all that much.

- also I love Kelly Marie Tran but the character she plays is so bland. Rose is cute and all but they should have given her better lines and a better personality in general. 

- the fight with Phasma, which lasted two minutes and which Finn won only because she was distracted. It could have been epic, but no, Phasma was almost even more underused that in TFA. Gwendoline Christie deserved better.

- pretty much all the bad guys deserved better, even if they’re a piece of sh*t. I don’t care about Hux but he was made into a joke during the whole movie (the humour at the beginning between Poe and Hux felt so forced, it was cringy honestly). I actually felt sorry for Domhnall Gleeson. The only good thing was how quick he was to aim his weapon at Kylo when he saw him down. Maybe he’ll get some form of revenge in the next movie? I hope so.

- and Snoke. Ugh. What the hell Rian? Basically Snoke was killed off just to add to Kylo’s character. No explanation on who he is, where does he come from, how is it possible for Kylo to kill him so easily when Snoke can literally hear his thoughts??? Nothing makes sense. I do agree with Kylo getting tired of being Snoke’s disciple and trying to kill him at some point, but that was way too easy. Snoke is supposed to be a very strong force-user, logically he should have wiped the floor with Rey and Kylo.

- Rey and Kylo’s interactions. I don’t know if it’s because of all the Reylo shippers out here or because of all the forced heterosexuality we’re used to see in movies since basically forever, but most of their scenes made me uncomfortable. There’s actually nothing romantic or sexual about it, but it was still weird to watch. It was mostly Rey’s attitude that bugged me. I get why she was so nice with him, she tried to do the right thing and, with Luke refusing to help, she thought turning him back to the light would help the Rebellion. She never thought herself a hero, so she tried to make a hero out of Kylo. Calling him Ben to appeal to his better nature. I just thought it was a big change compared to the last film. Even at the beginning she calls him a “murderous snake”. Her attitude changed too quickly. Kylo’s behavior though didn’t really surprise me. He was manipulating her. The whole time I though about his act with Han in TFA, so to me it was pretty in character. Also with Snoke gone they’re the two most powerful force-users in the trilogy so their connection is rather logical.

- the moment their hands touched though. Was that close-up really necessary? Stop adding fuel to that Reylo nonsense.

- and that shirtless scene. I can’t even, It was embarrassing and unnecessary (as are most shirtless scenes... I’m not here to criticize Adam Driver’s workout routine).

- by the way I’m sad Kylo destroyed his mask at the beginning of the film because I thought it was a pretty dope mask.

- another weird scene was Luke and that blue milk. Who thought it was a good idea? I understand wanting to show us Luke’s routine and how he survives on Ahch-to but... not this.

- Yoda. The puppet looks weird, straight out of TESB. They should have used CGI. Or chosen to bring back Obi-Wan or Anakin.

- Leia using the force in THAT scene (you know the one). I should have liked it but it was honestly too much for me. It gave me Guardians of the Galaxy flashbacks. I understand they wanted to remind us that Leia is also strong in the force even if she wasn’t trained but... how the f*ck do you survive being blasted into space?

- general Ackbar’s death.

- the fact that pretty much all of the Resistance is dead, to the point that the Millenium Falcon can transport them all.

- the plot in general. From the beginning to the end of the movie, nothing substantial happens. The First Order is still there, still way more powerful than the Rebellion. Everyone failed at what they were supposed to do : Rey didn’t get Luke to train her (not really) and she couldn’t bring Kylo back to the light, Finn and Rose didn’t finish their mission and almost died because of it, Poe’s plans didn’t work out either, Kylo didn’t kill Luke and didn’t bring Rey to his side, Hux fails at pretty much everything lol, the Rebellion is almost extinct... And yes failure is a teacher and all of that, that’s what the movie his about (thanks Yoda) but here the movie is ONLY about failure. There’s no satisfaction about that. In generals characters make mistakes AND overcome them in the same film. Here we have to wait for episode IX to see if they did learn from these mistakes. The only one who changed at the end was Luke and he died just after that. It doesn’t make me very hopeful about the next movie.

- also WHERE IS MY MAN LANDO CALRISSIAN???

I wrote so many negative things it looks like I hated the movie but I didn’t, I’m just very critical because I love Star Wars and some characters in particular.

I realize from what I’ve written that it looks like I really hate Kylo Ren but I don’t. I like how different he is from Darth Vader. I like how childish he can behave. I like that, despite Snoke’s influence, he still has ties to the light and can’t seem to cut them. I liked his mask and his fighting style in TFA. I like how manipulative he his. And Adam Driver is a great actor. But I hate the idea of Kylo and Rey together, especially in a romantic way, and I’m afraid that’s where we may be going. I don’t want him to go back to his mother. I don’t want him to have a redemption arc. I don’t want him to be forgiven and to go back to the light. He had two movies to do that, he had plenty of people reaching out to him. Snoke is dead, Kylo doesn’t have anyone making choices for him anymore and luring him to the dark side, he’s doing it himself. He’s done too much to deserve a redemption arc and he DOESN’T want it anyway. I like him as a villain, he’s complex and entertaining, but that’s all he can be anymore. He’s not going to be hero. Having conflicted feelings doesn’t make him more of a good guy, it doesn’t erase all the shitty things he did and the people he killed. There’s only one movie left in the trilogy and I don’t see how he would be able to come back from that. Rey isn’t going to make the mistake of trusting him again, even Leia doesn’t believe in him anymore. And most of all I hate how many characters Rian Johnson butchered in The Last Jedi just to make Kylo’s character more powerful or interesting. Luke’s character was butchered just to make Kylo’s more sympathetic, Rey was too nice, Snoke too easily killed. And that’s what pisses me off the most about this movie. It could have been great if only Johnson cared as much about the other characters as he did about Kylo.

[joboysu]

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2 – FUNNY AS IT IS EPIC AS IT IS DRAMATIC

(image source: JoBlo.com)

(image source: JoBlo.com)

**PRECAUTIONARY NOTE: Most of what is written here are my opinions. Don’t take them in a bad note. Everyone’s got opinions.**

Since 2008, Marvel Studios has been delivering us massive films based on their comic book works and so far they are doing a pretty good job. They’ve been earning tons of box office money—approximately $11 billion worldwide—and almost all of their entries are well-received by critics and fans, even those who don’t read the comics, like me (I’m too lazy to read but I sometimes acquire knowledge from those materials; sometimes I thank the YouTube series of Marvel called “TL;DR”, which stands for “too long; don’t read”, for acquired knowledge, and so far the episodes I watched were about Spider-Verse, Infinity Wars, and the Deadpool Kills series). Anyway…

The first entry of Marvel Studios of this year 2017, Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2, opened internationally late April and in the US May 5th. With a box office performance record of about $145 million domestically and about $430 million worldwide and an 82% “Fresh” Rotten Tomatoes rating, Guardians Vol. 2 is becoming an enormous hit in cinemas everywhere, from its special effects to its storytelling.

I for one am extremely amazed with the delivery of Guardians Vol. 2, and I had to watch it twice so I can see again how really great this film is, and also so I can write this review/reaction post. The visual effects were mind-blowing, the verbal humor was lovable, despite the mild cusses (no complete F-bombs, don’t worry), the visual comedy was colorfully funny, the pacing was fast enough to be satisfying, the characters were well-developed, and the drama equates the level of its comedy. Oh, the soundtrack was also pleasing; good for that “chillax” feeling you want. Those qualities of the film, from my perspective, can surpass those of the first Guardians and even those of Ant-Man, which almost shares the comedic concept (did I mention that Edgar Wright was the exec producer of Ant-Man and supposed director? That man’s really good in visual comedy. Take The Cornetto Trilogy and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World as examples. Also, don’t miss his new Baby Driver film.).

**SPOILERS AHEAD! DON’T READ IF YOU HAVEN’T WATCHED GUARDIANS VOL. 2 YET!**

Again? Another CGI de-aging? Well, this one from Guardians Vol. 2 is just as okay as that from Ant-Man’s Michael Douglas. That from Captain America: Civil War on Robert Downey, Jr. as young Tony Stark? It’s not actually bad, but it’s also not good enough. It looked unfinished, but that really nailed the young RDJ look. Tron: Legacy’s Jeff Bridges-de-aging wasn’t good-or-bad as well. All I can say is CGI de-aging is just meh-okay, but hey, it’s necessary to the story so, okay, go with it.

I have said that I don’t read comics but gain sometimes knowledge about them from the internet or hearsay, but Ego The Living Planet (played by Kurt Russell) being the father of “Star-Lord” Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) instead of the comic-original J’Son of Spartax is kind of ridiculous, but somehow it worked, as the creators gave a different take on the origins of Star-Lord, making a powerful Celestial-hybrid version of him.

I didn’t expect to be Ego to be a villain at first, but unlike what a lot people say about “underdeveloped” villains of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, like the first Guardians’ Ronan The Accuser (Lee Pace), Ego’s villain development was a huge jump from supposedly-good-guy, and man, it was good and a nice representation of his power, and a good twist as well, when Star-Lord finds out that Ego was the one who caused his mother Meredith (Laura Haddock) to have that cancerous tumor on her head that lead her to her death in the first film.

Talking about comedy, we expect Baby Groot (Vin Diesel) to be the biggest funny highlight of the film, but he’s just under who’s actually the highlight: Drax The Destroyer (Dave “Batista” Bautista). Yes, the brawns of the titular ragtag group is the comic relief. Sorry, Groot, but you’re still the cutie relief of the film. You’re so adorable to be killed, as said by—*chuckles*—Taserface (Chris Sullivan).

What makes him so are his laugh reactions, like when Mantis (Pom Klementieff) revealed that Star-Lord is romantically, sexually in love with Gamora (Zoe Saldana), his (back to Drax) awkward descriptions to Mantis, calling her ugly and horrible but beautiful on the inside (before for you criticize this part, I just wanna say that I have zero problems with “ugly” people), and his misinterpretations of figurative language. Also, his riding-along with Rocket’s (Bradley Cooper) quips are the best, like when the latter threatened Star-Lord to put something under his pillow, and it’s gonna be turds of Drax, Drax laughed and responded “I have famously huge turds”. His awesome moment, however, is when he shot down one of The Sovereign’s drones whilst screaming “DIE, SPACESHIP!” That I can say is one of the subtle signs of Drax’s character development of finally understanding nonliteral speech, aside from the first movie’s “finger-to-the-throat means death” scene.

Other comedic highlights include Rocket’s traps set for the Ravagers when they hunted down him and Groot, plus Yondu (Michael Rooker) when they rebelled against him for his “softness” on Star-Lord, Taserface’s name that even made The Sovereign’s High Priestess Ayesha (Elizabeth Debicki) laugh, plus Rocket’s insults to him, the excessive amount of hyperspace jumps caused by Rocket upon escaping from the Ravagers and arriving to Ego (the planet which is also part of Ego the man, of course) which caused the faces of Rocket, Groot, Yondu, and Kraglin (Sean Gunn, brother of director James Gunn) to warp and distort, and of course, Groot misunderstanding Rocket about pressing the right button to set off the bomb to blow up Ego. Another funny Groot moment is him shown to be growing up to his teen state, where Star-Lord scolds him of shedding leaves and growing roots too much to fill his room while playing a tablet game. I also laughed out loud when Star-Lord compared Yondu to Mary Poppins when the latter was holding on to his whistle-controlled arrow while landing in a manner Mary Poppins does with her flying umbrella. And lastly, subtly funny moment is where Star-Lord is given by Kraglin a final memento from Yondu: a Zune player, serving as a replacement for his Walkman destroyed by Ego and has about “300 songs”.

Cameos! Stan Lee’s cameo, shown in both the “hyperspace jump scene” and the post-credits scene, was also a funny highlight when he tells his stories to what seemed to be the Watchers. This somehow is a hint to who Stan Lee really is in the MCU, which producer Kevin Feige confirms that he is a single character roaming around the films. Is he also a Watcher? Cameos also count Howard The Duck (Seth Green) who first appeared in the first film’s post-credits scene, Cosmo The Space Dog’s return, celebrity cameos like Sylvester Stallone, Michael Rosenbaum (Lex Luthor from Smallville), Ving Rhames (Luther Stickell from the Mission: Impossible franchise), and Michelle Yeoh (Yu Shu Lien from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) as the first Ravagers, whose characters are based on the original incarnations of the Guardians Of The Galaxy: Stakar Ogord, Martinex, Charlie-27, and Aleta Ogord respectively, Miley Cyrus (WHAT?!) in an uncredited voice role of another Guardians original Mainframe, David Hasselhoff when Ego shapeshifted into Star-Lord’s childhood hero Michael Knight from Knight Rider, and rock icon Rob Zombie as the voice of a Ravager. Jeff Goldblum (David Levinson from Independence Day and Dr. Ian Malcolm from Jurassic Park) appeared dancing along with the main characters in the credits role as his Thor: Ragnarok character The Grandmaster.

Easter Eggs! A Marvel movie cannot be complete without itty-bitty, or maybe as large as the cameos, details referencing other Marvel works. Aside from the appearances of the original Guardians as mentioned earlier, Ego’s Celestial being was one Easter Egg. Yes, it’s a largely seen Egg that’s part of the plot but this can mean the Celestials, known to be “judges” of the worthiness of worlds, will actually be in the MCU. Adam Warlock was also revealed in one of the mid-credits scenes, where Ayesha was shown staring at his birth pod, wanting to call it “Adam”, and as we know, Adam Warlock is a genetically-engineered being and an original ally of the Guardians and the Fantastic Four (whose film rights should have been on Marvel Studios’ hands right now and not of Fox’s) but also a dangerous villain due to his Magus alter-ego.

The visual effects did not fail to amaze. The work of Industrial Light & Magic shows their greatness with stunning visuals of the environments and the powers. Really feeling like they’re actually there and the characters are actually on those environments.

Fun put aside, the story was well done. Its pacing was fast but it told a lot for us to know about the characters. It made those characters grow more and show some changes in them in such situations. Nebula’s (Karen Gillan) relationship with Gamora was somehow built on her quest to win against her, despite keeping on saying she wants to kill her but just wanting to “have a sister”. Rocket’s feelings about Yondu comparing himself to him were kind of heartbreaking when we know of Rocket as someone who doesn’t care about everything around him, and that somehow built also a relationship between the two, and made them realize about losing friends. Speaking of Yondu, his sacrifice to save Peter was the biggest dramatic highlight. His revelation to be the real father figure to Peter was impactful, and his death is heart-shattering and it left no eye dry.

The soundtrack. Ah yes. It’s really good to listen to. Those 80’s songs, like what the first film delivered, are unique add-ons to the film making the viewers feel a different feeling, and they really fit into the scenes, from the swooning “Brandy” by Looking Glass to the tear-jerking “Father And Son” by Cat Stevens. “Come A Little Bit Closer” by Jay & The Americans was a perfect fit, title-wise, to the scene of Ravagers hunting down Rocket and Groot [and Nebula], and as mentioned, “Father And Son” was so sad to show Peter’s realizations of Yondu being his true “Daddy” in spite of wanting to feel the love from his blood-related father [Ego].

Overall I give Guardians Vol. 2 a solid 4.5 out of 5. Marvel has done yet another stunner with this film, compared to Doctor Strange which is also a visually great MCU entry, and Guardians Vol. 2 surpasses the fun and excitement of the first film, while keeping the flow started by it to show good development.

Sources:

http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/franchise/Marvel-Cinematic-Universe#tab=summary

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/guardians_of_the_galaxy_vol_2/

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/marvel-kevin-feige-stan-lee-cameo-guardians-of-the-galaxy-2-a7707101.html

http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2017-04-30/the-11-best-easter-eggs-in-guardians-of-the-galaxy-vol-2

http://www.ign.com/articles/2017/05/02/adam-warlock-explained-who-is-the-guardians-of-the-galaxy-character

http://www.ign.com/articles/2017/05/04/guardians-of-the-galaxy-vol-2-easter-eggs-references-and-cameos

[zerojanitor]

2, 7, 8, 9, 14, 15, 23, 26, 28

Jesus that’s way too many numbers...

2: Company you're always loyal to?

I guess Nintendo on a grand scale since I generally end up buying their consoles and I’m probably a lot more forgiving of them than a lot of people are but I still have my grievances sometimes.

7: A game you'll never forget?

Lots and lots of them because I’m a nostalgia whore and I won’t let anything go

8: Best soundtrack?

Too many to list but a few standouts include DKC2, S3&K, and VVVVVV

9: A game you turn your volume off every time you play it?

Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX 2 because there’s only 10 songs and I only like about 3 of them (I listen to my own music instead). I also do that with Smash a lot.

14: A game you think would be cool if it had voice acting?

I dunno maybe a dub of Sonic Battle with really good emotional actors for the ending

15: Which two games do you think would make an awesome crossover?

Rivals of Aether and Freedom Planet would blend well together I think

23: Biggest disappointment you've had in gaming?

Star Fox Zero only because I worry for the future of the series. It didn’t sell well and Nintendo tends to attribute bad sales to people not caring about the franchise anymore. Plus they retconned everything that happened from 64 onward and contributed next-to-nothing in return.

I can’t speak much for the gameplay since I only played the demo and the first level.

26: Handheld or console?

Console because it’s more comfortable and also I stay at home a lot. Although I do miss being able to play handheld games on a console, that’s not something I’ve seen since the Game Boy Player for Gamecube. The Switch technically kinda sorta does that though.

28: Which character's clothes do you wish you owned the most?

You know what I’m gonna skip this since I’m completely drawing a blank

[krakowergroup]

PR: Tiny Christmas soundtrack

VARÈSE SARABANDE RECORDS TO RELEASE THE TINY CHRISTMAS – ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK Featuring Original Music Composed By Ryan Shore (December 11, 2017 – Los Angeles, CA) – Varèse Sarabande will release the TINY CHRISTMAS – Original Soundtrack digitally onDecember 15, 2017. The album features original music composed by Ryan Shore (JULIE’S GREENROOM, STAR WARS: FORCES OF DESTINY) for the Nickelodeon’s new holiday TV movie, which began airing in early December.

“It’s beyond a thrill and an honor to have composed the score for TINY CHRISTMAS.” said Shore. “I grew up watching classic holiday films such as IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE, A CHRISTMAS STORY and HOME ALONE. I can’t wait for audiences of all ages to see TINY CHRISTMAS, and I hope it could perhaps be seen as a holiday film for a new generation, and one that is worthy of multiple Christmastime viewings.” When a girl (Riele Downs) and her quirky cousin (Lizzy Greene) are accidentally zapped by a shrinking ray at the hands of one of Santa’s inept elves on Christmas Eve, they must learn to trust and appreciate each other and work as a team to get back home before Christmas, or risk staying tiny forever. “The director Jonathan A. Rosenbaum knew he wanted a thematic, adventurous, playful, colorful, orchestral score, which follows the storyline very closely, so the essential creative approach to the score was made very clear,” said Shore. “I grew up listening to scores like that, and so it was a musical sandbox that I couldn’t wait to jump into to write.” Ryan Shore is a 2x Emmy Award® and Grammy Award nominated composer, songwriter and conductor for film, television, virtual reality, games, records and theatre. Shore was Assistant Music Director and Contributing Composer / Arranger / Orchestrator for the 87th Academy Awards.  Shore’s 60+ scoring credits include STAR WARS: FORCES OF DESTINY (Lucasfilm), JULIE'S GREENROOM (Netflix) starring Julie Andrews with all new puppets from the Jim Henson Company, PENN ZERO: PART TIME HERO (Disney Television Animation), SCOOBY-DOO! WRESTLEMANIA MYSTERY (Warner Bros), SCOOBY-DOO! AND WWE: CURSE OF THE SPEED DEMON (Warner Bros), R.L. STINE'S MONSTERVILLE: CABINET OF SOULS (Universal), SPYHUNTER (Warner Bros), THE SHRINE (IFC), PRIME (Universal), COP AND A HALF: NEW RECRUIT (Universal), HARVARD MAN (Lions Gate), THE GIRL NEXT DOOR (Anchor Bay), STAN HELSING (Anchor Bay), CABIN FEVER 2 (Lions Gate), NUMB (Sony), SESAME STREET (PBS), P.O.V. (PBS), and THE X-FACTOR (FOX). Shore has conducted orchestras around the world in recordings and concerts including The New York Philharmonic, The Hollywood Symphony Orchestra, The Skywalker Symphony Orchestra, The Czech Philharmonic, as well as conducting concerts for Pokemon Symphonic Evolutions and Soundtracks Live! featuring music from Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Mar Vista Pictures present TINY CHRISTMAS currently airing and streaming on Nickelodeon. Varèse Sarabande will release the TINY CHRISTMAS – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack digitally onDecember 15, 2017and on CD soon. # # # www.varesesarabande.com For more information contact KrakowerGroup[at]gmail.com, or @KrakowerGroup on Twitter ABOUT VARÈSE SARABANDE RECORDS Founded in 1978, Varèse Sarabande is the most prolific producer of film music in the world, releasing the highest quality soundtracks from the world’s greatest composers. From current box office hits and top television series to the classics of Hollywood’s Golden Age, Varèse Sarabande’s catalog includes albums from practically every composer in every era, covering all of film history; from Bernard Herrmann, Alex North and Jerry Goldsmith to Alexandre Desplat, Michael Giacchino, and Brian Tyler. Varèse Sarabande releases deluxe and expanded editions of special soundtracks for the film music aficionado. The Varèse Vintage imprint specializes in releasing new and re-issued albums by classic pop, jazz and country artists. Varèse Sarabande Records is distributed by Universal Music Group. Follow:  twitter.com/varesesarabande Watch:  youtube.com/varesesarabande Listen:  open.spotify.com/user/varesesarabanderecords Like:  facebook.com/varesesarabanderecords Buy:  varesesarabande.com