Hot 100 Review: ROCKSTAR by Dababy, featuring Roddy Ricch

Watch the video: https://youtu.be/83xBPCw5hh4

It’s a cliche to note how lame rapper names have gotten over the years. I mean it used to take effort to make fun of rapper names. I mean Eminem, why don’t I call myself “Skittles,” you know, like that is clever or something. Nowadays their own rap names make fun of themselves. That brings us today to Dababy… yes really.

I honestly have not heard much… or anything from him, but do know people who like his music and find it entertaining. There was even a week when four or five of his songs were all on the Top 10 of the Hot 100. They did not last over to the next week for me to cover, but it still impressive. It means his skills must not match the level of intellect his name implies.

A title like ROCKSTAR sets up what the song is about pretty well. It’s about being a, well, star of rock. In specific it’s about being a rockstar gang banger. However the way the song goes about that message is unique, and uses its two artists to convey different sense of what being a rockstar of that type means.

Before getting into that it seems pertinent to look at the chorus since it is the only connective tissue, and has both of them on it. The chorus is almost impressive in the way it seems to roll every single trope of the gangster rap genre into a handful of lines. It starts with bragging about Lambos, having guns, being a rockstar cause they have guns, Glock specifically, and finally love from a significant other. None of the lines really stick out as anything special, but the use of the rockstar is peculiar. It’s phrased as a question. “Have you ever met a real [not gonna say that word] rockstar?” It is then followed up with “This ain’t no guitar… it’s a Glock…” From that perspective it is equating being a rockstar to having weapons. Furthermore with the preceding line phrasing it as a question it shows that they see it as something to brag about and be a sign of privilege and greatness.

Though that is what the chorus is saying it seems like DaBaby does not seem to fully agree with that statement.

His verse is long and split into two parts. The first part focuses on talks about how hard he worked to get where he is now, and that he has a strong connection to his mother who supports him and knows what his life is like. This points to DaBaby seeing being a Rockstar as someone who does the work on their own but still looks out for their family.

The idea of protecting family is further built on in the second part where he details in horrifying detail as he says he gunned down someone to protect his daughter, who now has PTSD. That alone is harrowing enough if it wasn’t deadly true, and illustrates the harm of the life he lives and what it means to be a rockstar. It means always have someone gunning for you (literally in this case), and you having to take responsibility for whatever comes out of that. These lines should honestly be the end to this song, and end to brag raps like these all together.

Unfortunately the song does not end. Roddy Ricch of The Box (which I reviewed. You should read it. It’s good) comes in when a second verse that is enjoyable enough, but feels tone deaf after what DaBaby brought.

Ricch’s verse is usual brag rap where he mentions driving around with guns and bling until he is almost gunned down at a gas station, but something happens. He gets away and says he’ll get them next time. I mean I think that’s what being said. He literally says “I was solo when the opps caught me at the gas station… had it on me, thirty thousand, thought it’d be my last day… but they didn’t even want no smoke… if I had to choose it, murder what she wrote.” If that is indeed he thought he was going to be killed and wasn’t for some reason i don’t know what is.

There is no official video at time of writing, only the release on YouTube, Spotify, etc.

The song is interesting, but ends sort of it an pretty traditional place. That isn’t a problem other than the fact DaBaby basically broke the rules and should be the one to end all raps like this. I really respect him for that and am interested in what other stuff he’s done.

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The Shallows (2016) Review

On a dramatic level, the best shark movie since Jaws, but still leagues away. The Shallows for now will likely be my final shark related review as I have touched on most of the ones I wanted to actually watch and review. When it was first released, the hype around it was very much what I said in the beginning. The best shark movie since Jaws. It really wasn’t saying much, but it was also saying a lot. It just meant that this movie was actually good rather than a throw away movie like Shark Night. Of course I went and saw it in theatres, but this is the first time I have seen it since then. Now I can really compare it to the other shark related films that I have recently watched.

The Shallows is a good movie plain and simple, but it doesn’t do much outside of just being good. It is true that it is the best shark movie since Jaws if you’re looking at pure drama. I would say on an entertaining level The Meg is probably the better film, but The Shallows holds its own as being a truly solid movie that delivers. All of the shark movies to a certain level are just simple survival movies, this one though feels more like a true somewhat realistic survival movie.

I say “somewhat” because of course none of these movies are really that realistic with sharks that seem to just seek out humans, but in comparison to say 47 Meters Down, this feels a lot more realistic. It’s also extremely simple as a premise which I think works best for it. Blake Lively is surfing with some people that she meets on a beach that she doesn’t know. They leave and she stays by herself and is attacked by a shark. She swims to a rock to seek safety and is now trying to survive and make it to shore somehow.

It’s incredibly simple when you look at it like that, but it’s the simplicity that I think works best and allows for us to really connect with Lively’s character. I honestly can’t say that I even remember what her name is, but I don’t think it matters all that much. The movie feels more like a survival movie that you would see in something like Everest or 127 Hours where it’s really a fight for survival. I would say that while the shark is very much a main character in the movie, I think the survival aspect actually reaches out a bit more than it being a shark movie.

That tends to go back to realism as I look back at both of the 47 Meters Down films. They seem to really set up a dire situation that would be a one in a trillion kind of situation that seems to be made more for the horror and shock value of sharks. That actually takes away from the quality of the movie because it’s less believable. The second film doesn’t help either by making it be even more unrealistic to happen, and again almost seems more juvenile and directed towards a younger audience like teens.

The Shallows feels like an adult shark movie with more drama, and a solid plot and setup that would seem to attract your every day audience. It’s because of this that I think the film is so good. It’s not a fair judgment to compare this movie to Jaws because anything is automatically going to look lesser to it, but if I forget Jaws for a moment, this is really a great summer movie. It doesn’t try to be anything it’s not and it follows its own setup without veering too far into the fantastical.

It does have a few moments that seem a little fantastical like most shark movies tend to do. Just to name off a few moments, why does a shark just hang around and attack people like that? I get that it’s the feeding ground of the shark since the dead whale is there so they did seem to cover that part, but it was the other people that were trying to save her that kind of felt a little fantastical. They were nowhere near as close to the dead whale as she was, but hey at least they actually had something that could work as an excuse.

The other thing that ended up being a little iffy were all of the times that the shark was absolutely relentless in his attack on solid objects. The first when he practically jumps on the rock and the second with the buoy. I can’t fault it too much because Jaws has a similar moment, but still. The other iffy part was how she defeated the shark, it seemed to be the most fantastical part of the movie. I mean I understand that he’s attacking her, but to just bite down on a bunch of metal rods or whatever they were seems a little silly.

Either way though, that is just a point of nitpicking that I’m not going to fault the movie too much on. It’s a good movie from start to finish and Blake Lively certainly gives a great performance. I was glad to finally see her in something to since it has been quite a while. I give this movie plenty of props for just making a good movie without trying to be too extra about what it is. It is on a drama level the best movie since Jaws and it deserves that merit as well as deserving to be seen by anyone who hasn’t seen it. I’m glad it hasn’t received a sequel, but I hope that it’s not due to box office. I recommend anyone to see this movie just for a good movie and a good time.

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Zoey’s Extraordinary Hype Episode 11 (a Review)

Everything is building. Zoey’s on the rocks with her friends. Work drama has turned Max against his old team, and Zoey’s father Mitch has progressed deeper into his disease. It is a dark time to be sure.

To match the dark time, this episode is off too. Despite being tonally consistent with s everything that came before there is just something off with it. Maybe digging in will help illustrate the point.

Zoey, her mom, and brother must work to pick out a plot for Mitch. The bake off continues with Lief, scorned with his breakup from Joan working with Floor 6, and Mo decides to break up with his boyfriend over working an 8 month long cruise as a dancer.

For one, a lot is going on. The cemetery plot (ha, pun), Zoey and Max’s tension, the bake off, and Mo’s whole thing. The problem is that so with so much going on none of it feels finished enough. The only one the sort of works is planning Mitch’s funeral. Zoey meets someone who had to go through what her mother currently is, has them talk it out and solves the problem. Easy enough. But everything else feels rushed. Lief, not wanting to totally leave his old team, is leaking code that ends the bake off and gets both teams to work together in a show of unity. Fine, but was never an idea before this, and the plot was literally just introduced so it feels like a waste of that idea. Similarly, Mo and his relationship trouble is just dropped on in the episode. It could be set up for later, but it’s in this episode and doesn’t add anything. Zoey and Max kind of make up, but that’s postponed by the ending which is interesting.

On top of that the only good song is Max doing a cover of “bye bye bye” by *NSYNC. All the others are way off key, or just bland. The actor playing Mo can sing, but that plot makes no sense so I don’t care.

I do not know how long this season will go on for, but this is the first time I’m reticent for see where it goes.

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Countdown (2019) Review

An incredibly disappointing movie with a decent premise. Countdown is one of those horror movies that from the trailers seemed only to be your typical kind of throwaway teen focused blah horror movie. The kind of movie that you target only those teens that go to the movies every weekend and go see a movie regardless really of what it actually is. Which apparently it didn’t even do that job well since I’m pretty sure it didn’t even make that much at the box office. Anyways, this movie was one that I blew off and dismissed when I saw a trailer for it, and completely forgot about until I finally decided to watch it. Unfortunately for me it wasn’t one of those surprising movies that was better than I thought.

The premise of Countdown is pretty simple and likely came up in conversation between a group of people that were all drunk one night. An app that tells you how long you have left to live and then when the countdown hits 0 you die. The only real stipulation being that if you try to slip out of certain plans that would have led to you dying than apparently some kind of ancient demon will seek you out and kill you anyways.

Well the first part is pretty cool and I would say the second part would be pretty cool too except that you actually see the demon rather than feeling it as a presence. You may be asking me what I mean and I’ll give you two movies that I think this movie tries to be but fails at both. The first is the Final Destination franchise and the second is the Conjuring franchise. This movie feels like it takes notes from each of these series, but just can’t live up to fully committing to either one.

It had a lot of potential of actually becoming a new Final Destination like movie where we could have seen a group of people who were all somewhat close to dying around the same time and they all try to cheat death. In which case we could have actually seen them either win by cheating death or die in ways that we didn’t expect or even they didn’t expect. Unfortunately this movie never gets to that level of coolness or fun. Instead it decides to focus on just three characters and also be incredibly boring until someone actually dies. Thankfully the handful of deaths we did see were kind of ok I guess.

Later in this movie when our main characters go and see a priest about the demon that they learned about being responsible for the whole ordeal or however its explained is when the whole movie loses itself. I really can’t even explain how they explained the demon thing, but I just went with it since I was ready to just turn the movie off. This is when it turns into a bit of a conjuring movie I guess with spirits or demons throwing people or just trying to scare our victims. I’m really not even sure what’s going on in the last half of this movie.

This may actually end up being my shortest review that I’ve done which is unfortunate because I don’t like writing short reviews, but there’s just nothing much to say about this movie. The acting was passable at best, but character motivations and acting in general was just plain and boring. There was a moment where I thought our main character and the other guy that was with her seemed to be getting close and that was interesting until I remembered that this is supposed to be a horror movie.

I would say the worst part about this movie isn’t the subpar acting or directing or any of the technical aspects, but rather it’s that the movie just won’t commit itself to something and it barely scratches the surface of the potential it had. As I first started watching it, I was surprised by the first kill and it immediately got me intrigued. The second kill also had me on board and intrigued, but when I realized that the movie wasn’t going to explore the possibilities of having a similar connection to the Final Destination movies is when it flattened out and became the most forgettable movie of last year. It’s a bad horror movie of a time that I thought we were growing out of. I wish that premises like this were actually executed on or just left in the no shoot pile so that I don’t have to attempt to come up with a compelling review.

I don’t enjoy not liking a movie or writing a bad review for one because I know a lot of people put in a lot of hard work. It’s too bad, but this movie just sucks and I can’t recommend it to anyone to watch. If anyone asks you if you want to watch it then I would suggest telling them to go check and make sure they aren’t sick or running a fever. IT’s not worth the time spent to watch it and there are plenty of other movies that would be more worth your time.

If you have seen this movie and you have your own comments or questions then be sure to comment below or send us an email at TowerCityMedia@gmail.com and follow us @TowerCityMedia

Bad Education is Good Entertainment (a Review)

It’s great to finally get to watch a new movie again. Of course, the year I decide to try and review as many new movies in cinema as possible is the year of a global pandemic. HBO has it covered though with a look at something else that is unfortunately on hold during this pandemic, school, in the movie Bad Education.

The film, set on Long Island in the early 2000s, follows then superintendent of Roslyn, Dr Frank Tassone. After getting Roslyn to No 4 in the state with plans to build a SkyWalk in hopes of reaching No 1 everything is undone when a series of oversights ends up leading the student paper to find a giant fraud scheme ran with the assistant superintendent. From there every spirals our as Frank must face the fed, school board, and angry parents.

The film is wonderful thanks to the performances of everyone involved, as well as the, mostly, solid writing. The main standout is Jackman himself as Frank. He is able to fully embody what made him such a smooth talker, charismatic, and devious. It helps that the dialogue is sharp, and the believable people.

The filmmaking is not amazing. A transition at the end from a jail to a school is impressive, but everything else is fairly conventional with space and compositions. The element this movie does have is great atmosphere. That’s an odd thing for a realistic drama to have, but being set in the early 2000s feels really nostalgic and like something from another time in a way nothing else about the movie does. It help grounds it and bring it to life.

The biggest problem the movie has is in pacing and scale. The total amount of money stolen is given at the end, but the movie doesn’t do a good job showing that scale or how it was all spent. It focuses on one or two major items but leaves the rest out. Similarly the film spends a lot of time in the first act setup. This leads into a couple montages to fill in crime and fallout when that should be all interesting to follow. It helps that the characters we follow are compelling so it does not matter, but it just does not give us a whole picture of the crime and fallout afterward. It also has a few too many conveniences that comes from what feels like compressing a much wider spread narrative into a film.

Overall it is a still a sharp, well constructed based on a true story scandal movie. I mean it somehow makes the students find out about the crime on their own plot work and not feel totally 90s Nickelodeon cool. It does have some of its own good stuff taken out, but it’s a system that works!

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Netflix’s Extraction (2020) Review

Chris Hemsworth gets his John Wick movie in this thrilling Netflix action film. Extraction is a movie that I had no idea existed until the trailer dropped a few weeks ago. The draw for this movie was clearly Chris Hemsworth in the lead, but also that Joe Russo wrote the script and both of the Russo Bros. Produced the film. I’ve been looking forward to any of their next projects coming off of the Marvel Universe and while 21 Bridges wasn’t received very well, it also didn’t look entirely thrilling. This film however had an immediate feel of some truly great action moments that we know them to be known for. The director is also a first time director, but a long time stunt coordinator on several Marvel films, so again I was positive about the action being great. Does the movie lean only on action though?

This is an action film thru and thru with John Wick being the biggest influencer from what I could tell and some hints at maybe The Raid also being an influence. With that said, you would assume that of course the action is going to be great, but what about the story? Well, the story isn’t bad and sets everything up early on to get us to the point where we have Tyler Rake (Hemsworth) trying to retrieve the son of a crime lord and extract him from the city so that he can get paid.

The story is simple enough and does its job of setting up why everyone is now after Tyler and trying to kill him. We also quickly get his motivation as being just doing it for the money, but that also subtly changes throughout the film as we seem him grow closer with Ovi. Now outside of the motivations and the actual point of the film and why everyone is doing what they’re doing, the story is pretty bland and doesn’t have much depth. However, I don’t consider that a knock on this movie at all.

Like John Wick and say The Raid, they all have fairly simple plots that set up the reason for all of the action and why our main character is doing what they’re doing. That’s all well and good as long as the movie can live up to delivering on the action. In movies like these for myself, my brain turns to a level where I am entirely okay with not much story and want to just see some incredible action sequences. Because of that, I really didn’t care at all about any of the slower parts where people were talking because I wanted to jump right back into the action. That’s the biggest downside of this movie though, I just wanted more action.

Getting into the action though, it really does show the level of expertise this director has with choreographing action scenes. If not from early on in the film, then definitely when we get to the one shot take. The Netflix Marvel shows like Daredevil made it a point to try and outdo themselves with one-shot action sequences that were all very impressive. We have also seen many other one-shot continuous takes in many other films and some trickery like Birdman and 1917.

As far as action movies go, this one has one of the best continuous shots that I have ever seen and can even think of off the top of my head. It is truly impressive as we see not only hand to hand combat, but also gunfights, car chases, and even falling off a balcony. This continuous shot is so impressive that it really helps make the movie that much better. Now maybe I’m just overhyped about it, but I really couldn’t get over how visually impressive it was and how intrigued I am to see any behind the scenes for how they were able to pull it off.

Other than just that scene though, the action entirely is very good and all feels very much like John Wick or The Raid. The action is brutal and violent, but it’s our main character Tyler that sells the impressive scenes. Like Keanu Reeves or Matt Damon as John Wick or Jason Borne, shoot even Ben Affleck as The Accountant, Chris Hemsowrth nails the role both in acting and in pulling off the stunts. Now I say his acting was quite good, but he also didn’t have a whole lot to work with dramatically, but there were a few scenes that he was quite good in what he was doing so I give him that.

His stunt performance though in this movie is very much more impressive than his work in the Thor films. I think this may be due to the fact that it seems that most of the action in this movie was practical rather than visual effects like it seems to be in most of the Thor movies. I think visually I am just more impressed with anything practical vs visual effects. All in all, Hemsworth nails the role and sets himself up as a character that I wish to see in future films or sequels I would say. That also all depends on your interpretation of the ending which was so good despite my fanboy anger at it. I feel like there could be sequels, but I also haven’t seen Netflix do a sequel to any of their movies like this yet so we’ll see.

To wrap things up, this movie is a solid movie from start to finish, but is an excellent action thriller on all levels. It has some of the best action sequences I’ve seen in a while along with one of the best continuous shots. Hemsworth gives us a fantastic character that I could see falling in line with characters like John Wick or Jason Borne. There is also a surprise actor about halfway through this movie that I didn’t know was in this movie. Outside of that though, the film seems to lose momentum anytime the action stops, but it hits some high peaks whenever the action starts back up.

I highly recommend this for anyone that is a fan of action movies especially if the trailer remotely peaks your interest. I think this is one of the better movies that Netflix has released and I almost wish I could have seen this in theatres. I think the general audience will really enjoy this movie and is one of the better things to come out during this time of being stuck at home. Go out and give it a shot.

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The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) Review

A good movie that runs too long and isn’t great until the last thirty minutes. The Greatest Show on Earth brings me to reviewing this weeks “Oscar Bait” movie. If you have been reading my past Oscar Bait movie reviews then you’ll know that I am watching a previous Best Picture winner each week randomly picked and this week is a movie from the 50’s that I definitely haven’t seen before. I did look up a bit of trivia and found out that this was the first movie that Spielberg watched and has influenced some of his films, and I can really see some similarities in this film that make me think of his movies. I also have read plenty about how many think that this is one of the worst Best Picture winners, so I was full prepared for this to not be good.

The first thing I noticed when I started the film was that it was two and a half hours long which took me by surprise. I don’t mind watching movies that long, but it was going to have to have a petty compelling story for it to be worth the runtime. Also, the credits are all in the very beginning of the film which we somewhat see now, but not the way it was back then. They actually show every bit of the credits for this movie in the very beginning rather than the end and by the end it just sort of wraps up and then cuts back to my Vudu screen.

So if you aren’t familiar with this movie like me then I’ll break down the premise real quick. Hugh Jackman plays as…Just kidding. That’s The Greatest Showman. The Greatest Show on Earth is about the circus plain and simple. The only real compelling bits of story is the fight for the center ring between Holly and The Great Sebastian, and apparently two guys who were kicked out of the circus are now wanting to rob the train the circus is travelling on. Oh and a love triangle between Holly, Sebastian, and Brad…

The conflicts are all great except for the love triangle and the movie really peaks when we get to see the two conflicts. The first one is between Holly and Sebastian vying for the center ring where Holly feels she deserves it but will do anything Sebastian can but better. In one of the best parts of the movie we actually get to see the two go back and forth giving us some truly amazing stunts. This brings me to by applaud for the stunt crew and visuals as a whole. I am not entirely sure if they used any movie magic to make it look like they were performing these stunts or if they actually did them, but they were very impressive.

That goes for the whole movie though. I know that a bunch of the performers were actually from the circus, but as for the actual known actors, I wonder if they went through training to be very good performers in the roles they had in this film. If that is true then I really am impressed with how well they did and wonder how long it took to actually nail it down. That brings me to the next conflict between the two former members of the circus and how they want to steal the money from the train.

It was weird how much was actually set up early on in the movie that I just didn’t pick up on at all that actually comes into play later. I can’t remember the names of the two guys, but one was working with the elephants and the other was scamming people by the games to take their money. They both have a grudge against Charlton Heston (Brad) who kicks them both off the circus so they try and steal the circus money from the train.

The scene is clearly shot with very small models that most people of my generation would see and immediately dismiss or laugh at for being too cheesy or fake, but given the times it was actually very entertaining and quite good. It’s this scene that sets up the last bit of the movie. The train crashing leads to Brad being injured and the whole circus crew pushing for the show to go on. Of course they do and the show goes on as planned despite not having everything they had before since the train wrecked and then the movie ends.

It’s unfortunate because all of the loose ends and set up come into play in this last thirty minutes whether it be the wreck by the two men or Buttons the clown. Both of them elevated the level to a point where I was starting to get more engaged, but the film doesn’t do much else with those plotlines and the movie ends as soon as the excitement really starts to pick up.

The last major conflict is the love triangle between Brad, Holly, and Sebastian. I think the worst part about this is the writing for Holly or possibly even the acting by her also. She seems to overact as if she is in theatre on a stage, but it doesn’t help that she isn’t given much dialogue that is compelling enough to make her more than an object for these two men. I really just didn’t care at all about any of the tug of war between these three and wanted them to just get back to the stunts and circus parts.

Finally, the circus parts are quite good and come off as being somewhat like documentary filmmaking where we get an inside look of what the behind the scenes of the circus is really like. While I think the movie is quite good in moments, it doesn’t feel like it is a real worthy winner, but I can see why it won. It isn’t a fantastic movie, but with the stunts and the great inside look at the circus I can understand on a filmmaking level why it was picked to win. It seems like they really brought everyone to the circus without actually having to go to the real circus. It also was the highest grossing film that year.

While I did quite enjoy the film as a whole, I do feel that it could have been better if it had cut out about thirty minutes and kept a tight two hour runtime. I was surprised with how impressed I was with the stunts and how much I actually enjoyed it, but I can’t say that I would recommend this for anyone. I think that if you are the kind of person that will go out of your way to really dive into film history and go far back to watch historical films then you may enjoy this, but it is not by any means the kind of movie that just anyone would like. By all means though, give it a shot if you seem interested.

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Teen Wolf (1985) Review

A little dated and formulaic, but surprisingly enjoyable and funny. Teen Wolf is a movie that I have heard of before, but more recognize the spinoff TV series on MTV. I haven’t yet watched the series, and up until writing this I hadn’t watched the movie, but I finally wanted to give it a shot before starting the series. I’m not sure what exactly I was expecting with this movie because I really knew nothing about it. I thought maybe it would be some kind of Wolf vs Wolf kind of movie or an action or suspense movie, but ultimately I went in with a completely blank slate in my mind of what to expect. The only thing I knew and was excited about was that Michael J. Fox was going to be playing the lead character.

Michael J. Fox is the heart of this movie from start to finish and without him, I don’t think it would have been as good as it was. I say that though as if this movie is actually really good which it’s not. It’s not a bad movie but it’s not a great movie either. It just sits right in the middle at I would say a solid 50%. It’s very formulaic and dated with familiar tropes that are too expected and nowadays would come off as lazy writing.

It has a simple premise of Scott who plays for his school basketball team and they all suck, but don’t worry because he’s going through puberty. He slowly starts having symptoms of turning into a werewolf which finally fully happens, but don’t worry because his dad can to. It’s in their blood. He also is picked on at school. During a basketball game he turns into the wolf and becomes an all-star baller and dunks on everyone. Now he’s super popular and he takes advantage of his wolf version of himself only to figure out in the end that it’s not all cracked up to be as great as it seems so in the end the basketball team wins the championship without him turning into a wolf.

Yes, I did just spoil the whole movie and I’m not going to care if I get hate for that because it’s an old movie, but the gist is that this movie is pretty basic and by the numbers. Even so much as him falling for the popular girl and trying to get with her only to realize he was wrong the whole time and should go for the best friend girl who likes him for who he really is. It’s all eye rolling writing that seems silly and very overdone by today’s standards, but if you look past that and take it for what it is then you might actually have a good time with it.

I will be the first to say that this movie is not a good movie and will not be liked by most people that watch it, but I for one actually found myself to really enjoy it. I enjoyed all of the predictability and all of the cheesy tropes of a typical 80’s coming of age movie. The most interesting part about doing this review is that this isn’t even the movie I was expecting it to be. I wanted a much more serious and more action filled movie and I got none of that.

Instead I got a movie that doesn’t seem to take itself seriously and appears to only be a fun time for all of the actors involved. Nobody really stood out as far as acting goes except for Michael J. Fox, but you could tell that everyone was just having a good time. The writing and directing certainly leave more to be desired and the costume is absolutely just a glue on looking costume, but the feel of fun in the 80’s with him becoming a werewolf and using that to his advantage to become more popular is just enough to have me hooked and on board.

I actually question myself as to whether or not it’s just the concept of the movie that I enjoy more so than the actual movie. I can’t quite place what it is, but finishing the movie and writing this review I just found myself really enjoying the ridiculousness of it. I would have very much enjoyed seeing a series following this film in the 80’s with the same cast, but we never got that. I also haven’t seen the MTV show so I don’t have a comparison yet, but I think I would like to see a Teen Wolf series actually set in the 80’s like this movie.

As I said earlier, I won’t be one to try and defend this movie because I may be insane to actually like it as much as I do, but I will say that it’s definitely a movie I would love others to watch so I can discuss it. I can’t recommend it outside of me just wanting other people to see it to see if I’m just the only crazy one or not. I can’t help it, but something about this movie hits all of the right spots for me and I’m sure is an automatic guilty pleasure that many people will question me for liking. No matter what though, I will stand by this movie and continue to like it as much as I do. Or maybe if I watch it again I might hate it….Who knows!

If you have seen this movie please comment below and let me know what you think and whether or not I’m just crazy. You can also email us at TowerCityMedia@gmail.com and be sure to follow us @TowerCityMedia

Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) Review

One of my favorite movies of recent memory and probably also a guilty pleasure. Godzilla: King of the Monsters was a movie I was looking forward too, but my expectations were tempered since I knew that the first film had some room for improvement. The best thing about this movie is that I stayed away from most marketing outside of maybe one trailer, so I didn’t really know what kind of sequel I was going to get. The worst decision I made was that I didn’t go see this movie in theatres. I was supposed to, but something came up and I ended up passing on it and forgetting about it until it was released on digital. Watching this movie for the first time I fell in love with it and watching it for this review was something I was looking forward to.

King of the Monsters is my most recent frequently watched movie. I think of all of the movies that have come out in the last few years. I have most watched the new Star Wars films and then this one. I will not sit here and tell you that it’s the best movie of all time because it’s not, however, this is one of my favorite movies of the last few years for a few reasons. The first of which is that they absolutely out everything out on the table with this movie and said screw it and went all the way.

What I mean by this is that the first movie felt a little more reserved by not showing us Godzilla as much and having just bland villains. This movie though goes full blown balls to the wall with action and fun. We get way more Godzilla than in the first film, but that’s only made better with villains that are equally as awesome on screen. We got the lame MUTO’s in the first film that I didn’t want to see on screen ever again, but this time we also got Mothra. On top of that we got Rodan, but to make it even better as if that wasn’t enough, we got Ghidorah, the three headed lightning dragon.

There are plenty of other monsters that are shown in this film, but those four are the ones that make up the majority of the action in the film. Visually too the battles are all top of the line magnificent to watch. Now I’m sure there are people out there that will say I’m wrong because a lot of the film took place in the dark or maybe didn’t look as good to them, but for me I love it. I love that I get to see mega sized monsters just duke it out with the earth as their stage.

Now like all movies, it take some time for the action to really start to build up. I was invested in the beginning of the film and all of the human actors that were involved the first time around, but seeing what I eventually get in the movie makes me not care so much about them anytime I watch it now. With that said, the beginning isn’t too bad and is really highlighted by Millie Bobby Brown, Kyle Chandler, and Vera Farmiga. Now, they really don’t have that much to do and I don’t quite understand certain motivations and decisions that are made, but I soon forget about that when we finally get to see Ghidorah awaken in the Arctic.

It’s at that moment that this movie turns into a monster disaster end of the word type movie where it’s just Godzilla vs the dragon. The rest of the movie isn’t very layered with symbolism or imagery or hidden meanings, but rather it explores the lore of the monsters and the lore of Godzilla. I do very much enjoy the world building that we get to see since it seems they’re trying to expand this monsterverse into something more.

I won’t say that the writing or directing are particularly great, but I also don’t watch this movie for either of those since it does its job of giving me what I want out of it. The one thing that I did notice as being consistent with this film as well as with the first Godzilla and Kong: Skull Island is the perspectives we get to see. By that I mean that we continue to have our ground level human perspective of not just the action, but also the creatures themselves. On top of that, this movie is very much and end of the world disaster movie like 2012 or some others. Because of that, we get to see destructive like moments from the human perspective.

One of the most unique instances of this is when Rodan awakens from the volcano and swoops over the city. As he does we see the building burns from his presence as well as the people being blown away from each gust of a wingbeat. It’s truly impressive. Everything up to the point of Godzilla being nuked to gain strength again is already the best I have seen in any of these monster movies, but it’s the final battle the really is the icing on the cake. Godzilla and Ghidorah duke it out in Boston and battle for the ages. The only thing to top it visually was when Godzilla goes full nuclear. His presence is melting buildings away and is the ultimate downfall of the three headed dragon. It’s a moment that instantly got me as excited as I was during any of the most recent Star Wars films.

As a whole, I was eating up every single bit of this movie. Mostly though with the action and any time I got to see Godzilla face off against another monster. This isn’t one of the greatest movies of all time, but it would make my list of top 20 favorite movies. I would consider it a guilty pleasure given that not many people went to go see it and not everyone liked it as much as I did. It’s a guilty pleasure that I will watch again and again and love every time. I think that the only chance of it being beaten out as my number one guilty pleasure is if Kong vs. Godzilla is even better which it could be.

I won’t recommend this for everyone because I’m sure I may be one of the biggest fans of this film, but it really is a fantastic fun movie that I think everyone should at least give a shot. If you’ve seen this movie and you have comments or questions then be sure to comment below or email us at TowerCityMedia@gmail.com and be sure to follow us @TowerCityMedia

Jobs (2013) Review

A fun look into the history of Steve Jobs that feels mediocre at best. Jobs starring Ashton Kutcher was the first biopic of Steve Jobs and at the time it seemed a little quick coming off of his death. The casting selections seemed pretty good, but I remember Kutcher being the most controversial part as the lead. I never really had an interest in seeing this one, because I think around the time I knew there was going to be another version written by Sorkin so I figured it was more of just a rushed project to get the first biopic about him out. It wasn’t until I recently rewatched Steve Jobs (2015) that I decided to watch this movie so that I could officially compare the two.

In my review for the Fassbender led Steve Jobs film I complained about how the film focused on three specific moments and never ventured out into the details of the early days. That is different with this movie because it goes the typical biopic route of actually starting from the very beginning of his story into the creation of Apple all the way to the release of the Ipod.

The problem though with this movie is that everything does feel mediocre at best. The directing wasn’t anything special that stood out and neither was the writing or the acting. The acting though hinges mostly on Kutcher’s performance as Jobs. I never knew the details of Jobs and how accurate his actual way of talking and walking are to what we see with Kutcher, but he certainly goes out of his way to make him seem unique.

I really enjoy how unique he made his portrayal of Steve Jobs, but it can’t be saved from Kutcher’s inconsistent acting throughout the film. I would love to say that he did a great job all around because there are moments where I think he could have, but it felt like as soon as I had hope of him being great, he ends up overacting in a scene or just being mediocre. By the end I was honestly disappointed in what he ended up doing as a whole. I never hated his casting because he definitely looked the part, but he just couldn’t live up to the performance level that I saw out of Fassbender.

The rest of the acting was led by Josh Gad who plays Wozniack with an incredible group of supporting actors. Unfortunately though, the supporting cast couldn’t help much either, as they just seemed to be there playing bland versions of themselves. I would say Josh Gad might have been the best out of all of them, but even then I don’t think he was a better Woz than Seth Rogen, but he did have a bit more to work with so maybe if I watched it again I would feel different. I do think though that the writing is the biggest issue that holds all of these actors back from being great.

I think the worst part about this movie is the writing which is a shame because they were on the right track with their intention, but just failed on execution. I love that we actually got to see Steve before he came up with the idea with the help of Woz. It really gave us a better insight into what the man was like before, but unfortunately the writing just seemed borderline comedic at times. I’m not even sure if comedic is the right term for this, but more of like a trip that Kutcher went on while smoking pot in an episode of That 70’s Show.

That brings me to the focus of this movie being a little disjointed throughout the film. At times it feels like it’s trying to be serious in the vein of The Social Network, but pushing the fact that he was a big pot head or fan of tripping on acid, seem to feel more comedic and unrealistic than the more serious aspects of the film. It could be that the directing just came off as cheesy and over the top. I’m not saying that there’s a problem with Steve smoking or dropping acid because it was the 70’s and 80’s, but I think there could have been a better way to show it other than making me feel like the whole movie was just a trip.

A lot of the story elements in this film are also brought up in the other Steve Jobs film, but we get a little more insight into this movie, at the same time though it also doesn’t cover everything. Both of these films fail in only giving us a portion of the story rather than actually taking the time to give us both a great complete story and great writing and acting. I think when it comes down to it, the two films would be best if they were just combined.

I think this movie takes the time to actually showcase some important development of Steve Jobs and has a more interesting adventure though his life, but as w hole it comes off as mediocre rather than actual quality. The Fassbender film has the acting and the writing but feels by not giving us a more interesting story in the vein of this film. I think the best version of this movie would be if you had a mixture of the two, but unfortunately I don’t think we’ll ever get a better version of his life. Maybe not for a long time to come.

All in all I would say that I can’t really recommend this movie to everyone unless you are interested in the story of Steve Jobs. I think that if you are interested than you need to watch both of these movies to get a real feel for who the man was and what his story really is. As a standalone movie though, this movie is mediocre at best but entertaining enough for you to somewhat enjoy.

If you have seen this one or the other one and you have comments or questions then make sure to leave them below or email us at TowerCityMedia@gmail.com and be sure to follow us @TowerCityMedia