W is for Wa.. (#ABizzeePick or 2) (#AtoZChallenge)

Today is the last day of the A to Z Challenge for bloggers running in the month of April. The gist of this challenge was we were supposed to submit one post a day except for Sundays for the entire month of April. As it stands right now, I'm 3 post behind. I should be submitting my Z post right now. Yet here I am with my W post.


What's interesting is I had an idea I would wind up picking a movie for W. I even knew which movie, 2000's 'Way of the Gun' starring Ryan Phillippe and Benicio del Toro. To me, this movie is a surprisingly overlooked classic. The beginning scene, featuring a young Sarah Silverman (trust me, if you're familiar with her you'll recognize her instantly) sets the tone for this exercise in double crosses. The plot, which is simple enough to cover in one sentence, is the least complicated thing about this movie. A couple of unscrupulous guys (Phillippe and del Toro) over hear a surrogate mother (Juliette Lewis) is getting $1 million for carrying the baby to full term and they decide to kidnap her not knowing who the surrogate parents are.

There's way more going on here than I care to get into or I'd dull the experience of this movie for you. Just know that this was the next movie written by Academy Award winning screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie, who won an Oscar for the movie he wrote before this one, The Usual Suspects. If you found yourself confused by the earlier film's plot, don't even bother looking at WotG. Alliances are broken almost as quickly as they are formed in this movie. Instead of a 'reminds me of...', I'll do you one better this time: this movie is almost a hommage to another movie called "____ _______ And ___ ________ ___", the too nameless protagonists/antagonists actually refer to themselves in the former pair's real names.


That's it... for that pick anyway.

The other Bizzee Pick that made it's way into this post, I won't actually review here or go into more detail about this movie. I just felt like adding this movie to this list because I've talked about it so often these past few weeks, I take that as a sign that this was meant for me to write about it.

A super-hero murder mystery. #5WordFilmPlots pic.twitter.com/wD0GrcOTiF

— Smokkee G Singleton (@MrGBIZ) April 30, 2015

And I have already. I'll address the source material eventually but just know that although it's a graphic novel (ok, comic book!), it's number 227 on the essential reading list "1,001 Books to Read Before You Die".


NOW, that's it. Catch you next post.. in about an hour.

Smokkee    

U is for Ultron (#AtoZChallenge)

This will probably be the last thing I post about 'Avengers: Age of Ultron' before I go see it the movie when it comes out this weekend. Probably. No guarantees.

I can't think of any other movie I was this excited about seeing. 'Watchmen' might have came close but I didn't get all Trekkie-over-'Star Trek' about it. This movie isn't even a movie anymore. It's an event that must be experienced. I know from experience. That experience was the first Avenger film experience.

I'm grown but I felt like the world's oldest teenager when Hulk beat up Loki in the first film. To me, that scene is up there with the other great fight scenes from other movie events like Neo fighting multiple copies of Agent Smith and Luke fighting Darth Vader (both fights). Those movies transcended traditional films to me but I'm sure I can't be the only person who compares every major action movie or whatever to the classics like these three films.

I also have a feeling I'll be experiencing a bit more deja vu with this film. We already know where this movie leads to, kind of like knowing where 'Matrix: Reloaded' was leading to. I didn't think 'The Matrix' was going to be as good as it was when it came out. I'll gladly admit I was wrong about that and I'll openly admit I was wrong thinking that as good as the first film was, the sequel would also suck.

    
What's next after Ultron? Well, it might be the same as before Ultron. The next episode of the TV show, 'Marvel's Agents of SHIELD', is already slated as being the event that leads directly into Age of Ultron. If that's not enough to get you to watch the show, just know that if the final episodes of the season do not deal directly with the aftermath of AoU, they at least set the scene for what's next to come in the MCU. it's just too bad I'm gonna catch it after the fact. I got my first Chicago CUBS game of the season to attend. Thankfully, I do have Hulu Plus.


Later WORLD.
Smokkee

T is for Transsiberian (#AtoZChallenge)

Confession time. As much as I love the movies that make my list, sometimes I really hate writing #BizzeePick reviews. Never has this been more true than for trying to write a review for Transsiberian. There's not much I can tell you about anything without taking something away from the experience of this movie in the first place. The reason I love these movies so much are also the reason these movies are so hard to review.

I seriously can't tell you anything about this movie Transsiberian without giving too much away. I got to start with a 'reminds me of' since there's not much I can tell you. There's another movie about a traveling couple, a few traveling couples actually, called 'A Perfect Getaway' with Timothy Olyphant and Steve Zahn. This movie kind of puts me in the mind of that movie but it's much better executed. The twist isn't that cheesy either.

Carlos showing a lil something to Jessi

Now to the movie itself. The couple here, Roy and Jessi (Woody Harrelson and Emily Mortimer) are taking a cross continental
train between Asia and Europe. They meet a fellow traveler named Carlos and his girlfriend. Then things get thrown through a loop when an officer looking for smugglers (Ben Kingsley, as menacing as ever) appears.

OK. Everybody in this movie is excellent for starters. Secondly, this movie completely sucker punches you with the developments that happen on screen. None of what happens is unnatural, forced. Every character's decision, as rash as it may be at times, makes sense. Not many movies can claim that.

Not many straightforward movies like this, one that's completely understood in one take, gives you this much food for thought after the first feeding. A second helping isn't necessary but it goes down just as well as the first screening. Again, how many movies can say that?







This #BizzeePick can.

Later, WORLD.

Smokkee

   

S is for Songs In The Key Of My Life (#AtoZChallenge)

Everybody would describe life as one thing or another. The way I describe life is everybody's life is like a movie that only they see. That's how I view mine. Starring me, lol. Well, most movies have soundtracks. Mine is no different. This post is basically what 'Smokkee: the Movie's soundtrack would be. These are the songs that are huge in my life for some reason or another.


The entire 2 disc set of Stevie Wonder's Songs In The Key Of Life:

First off, let me explain this: I grew up listening to Lionel Richie, Marvin Gaye, of course Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson, all thanks to my moms Jeanette Singleton (who became Jeanette Thomas after her marriage). Every Friday she would play songs like GQ's 'Disco Nights' would play for as long as I could remember. It was our way of winding down from our long week's work.

Of course you knew Stevie's award winning album would somehow make it's way into this post. The post's title paying homage was a clue that's too obvious to be ignored.  The thing about this album is every song on both of these discs has been my favorite at some point in my life and songs like 'Ordinary Pain', 'Ngiculela-Es Una Historia - I Am Singing' and 'As' never leave out of my music rotation. 

    

Commodores: Zoom

 This song is a constant reminder to me that not only is it cool to let the mind wander and think of how this world can be a better place, especially when you're surrounded by nothing but turmoil and chaos, sometimes, this thinking is a necessity. That's what I get from this song. Of course, every student learns a different lesson.





Randy Crawford: Give Me The Night

One of the first neo-jazz songs that I fell in love with. It's also a blueprint of my 20's.



Creative Source: I'd Find You Anywhere




Audio Two: What More Can I Say

The first cassette tape I could ever say that was mine and mine alone.





Prince "Purple Rain"
Lynard Skynard: Freebird
Rolling Stones: Sympathy For The Devil
Pink Floyd "Wish You Were Here"

When I first got into music videos on MTV, the most dominant music was rock n roll and Michael Jackson. They would play hard rock, soft rock, soft rock, Mike, hard rock, Michael, etc. If you remember the time (bad pun, I know), then you know I ain't lying. It didn't get rock n roll at first. I didn't really get rock really until Purple Rain, the movie and the album, and then it clicked. When it did, Lynard Skynard's Freebird became my unofficial official theme song, the Stone's Sympathy For The Devil become my mantra, and Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here" became my favorite rock album not named "Purple Rain".

Isaac Hayes: No Name Bar (From the "Shaft" soundtrack),
N.W.A.: Straight Outta Compton, 
The D.O.C.: No One Can Do It Better,
2Pac: 2Pacalypse Now,

"Who is the man..?" Everybody knows Hayes' theme for Shaft but the song that I most relate to is this instrumental. I loved this beat when it was sampled by Dr Dre for the D.O.C. for the aptly titled "The D.O.C. and the Doctor" on his debut album 'No One Can Do It Better' but I didn't research the origin of the beat until I heard 2Pac use it for "A Soldier's Story" from his first (and best IMO) album '2Pacalypse Now'. These 2 hip hop albums are completely different but both made me love hip hop more than ever. If you ask me, the album that stood out as the best around that time frame was NWA's Straight Outta Compton, the first hip hop album I felt wasn't afraid to tell it like it is. Honarable mention should go out to Slick Rick's "The Further Adventures Of Slick Rick" and Eric B and Rakim's "Paid In Full" for cementing my love for hip hop like no album before them but these 3 albums I named above made me think that even I could be a rapper, something most inner city kid these days believe anyway. "Straight Outta Compton" told a story that I was seeing at that time, and one that I would eventually experience personally a few years later, on a level Ice T reached a few years prior to this album's release. I think the fact that NWA was only a few years older than me had a great effect on me too. They did this. I can do this too.

Boys II Men "CooleyHighHarmony"
Jodeci "Forever My Lady"
Mint Condition: "From The Mint Factory"

The first few slow cuts albums I could claim for myself. I found these albums all on my own while my moms was still bumping Heatwave, Stephanie Mills, etc. Of course I still loved here music; she just couldn't get into too much of these albums, though she would later tell me Boyz II Men's "II" album was pretty good. These albums were what I listened to my first year at Hyde Park Career Academy and I'm glad to say that 20 years later, these albums still hold up.

Nas: "Illmatic"
Common Sense: "Can I Borrow A Dollar?" / "Resurrection"
Psychodrama / Twista / Do Or Die / Crucial Conflict

Those 2 albums are standouts from the early 90's for me because they are the reasons I expanded my flow beyond gangster rap. Nas and Wu Tang Clan's "Enter The 36th Chambers" And Common Sense, who would become much more famous after dropping Sense from his name,  made me believe I really could become a rapper since he was not only from Chicago but from a 'hood not to far from me. They were conscience rappers that had me wanting to go the conscience route. A few years later, other Chicago acts like Psychodrama and Crucial Conflict gave me a sense of pride since they were blowing up on various levels. I had never been prouder of Chicago hip hop than when these acts along with Do Or Die and Twista had the whole city on their shoulders for a time being.

Nowadays, hip hop acts like J Cole, Kendrick Lamar, Chance the Rapper, Childish Gambino keep my ear since I've become almost exclusively a fan of conscience hip hop. And while I got love for Bruno Mars, Chris Brown, Miguel, etc., they don't hold the same sway over me that the old school crooners do.  Nonetheless, if I was asked to list the most influential music of my lifetime, this list would be as good as you got.

Later, WORLD.

Smokkee 

R is for 'Resolution' (a #BizzeePick) (#AtoZChallenge)

Hello, WORLD! Smokkee here adding another movie to my favorite movie list, which I affectionately call my Bizzee Picks. Typically, the types of movies I add to this list are ones I'm more than sure most of yall haven't seen before, which is a travesty to me since these are some of the best movies of whatever genre they are a part of. Usually, that genre is horror and this post isn't an exception so to speak but it's not your typical horror movie either. There's no violent images, none of those cheesy, overused horror tropes like jump out scares, or those false scares started by amped up music letting you know something horrible is coming... and then the horror never shows. 

Wait, there is one that is used, a fairly common one at that. In fact, this movie puts me in the mind of another fairly recent horror movie that not only uses the same overused horror movie trope, it's named after it. And then they skewer it in ways that make them both stand out. The biggest difference between these two movies is the other is ultra gory for skewering purposes and this movie isn't, presumably for the exact same reason. 

Chris (left) and Mike having a heart to heart talk in 'Resolution'

Another movie it reminds me of, another Bizzee Pick at that.. but not a horror movie, is Storytelling. They are both essentially addressing the same subject matter, with equally shocking results. Now that I think about it, maybe Storytelling is a horror movie flick after all... It also doesn't have any violence, unless you count THAT infamous sex scene, but it does leave you feeling some type of way. As does this movie. Both movies even have almost the same line of dialogue about beginnings, middles, and ends...


Intrigued, yet? No? let me continue then.

The film I'm adding today is 2012's Resolution, written by Justin Benson and directed by Benson and Aaron Moorhead. You're probably familiar with this pair's last offering, 2014's genre defying movie Spring, or their high energy segment in the last movie in the horror anthology V/H/S franchise ('V/H/S Viral') called 'Bonestorm'. If you remember the scene with the skateboarders, you don't even have to go back and watch it to know which one was theirs.  While both of those are excellent, Resolution is my favorite work by this pair so far and got me eager for more.

The plot is fairly simple. A married man named Michael receives an email of his buddy Chris alone in some forest with some dog doing cocaine, talking to himself, just acting like he's losing his mind. Michael (played kind of stiffly, probably by design, by Peter Cilella) does what he feels is the right thing by leaving his pregnant wife for a week to try to convince Chris (a hilarious performance by Vinny Curran) to go to rehab. Mike didn't set out to leave his wife for a week's time, I'm sure, but it winds up being that long after he fails to get Chris to enter rehab and decides he'll just handcuff Chris to the wall of the house that Chris is residing in until he decides to give rehab a try. Wait, did I say it was house? I meant to say 'cabin in the woods' Chris is residing in at the time. 

You see where this is going, right?

Wrong. Absolutely wrong. One common thread that Bizzee Picks have in common is you can't look at the beginning of one and say "Oh, I know exactly where this is heading." I very rarely even like movies like that to begin with. I won't stop you from thinking you will but no, you won't. You won't even have a clue. 

A few things I should mention before I go in further and this is about as close as I get to revealing any spoilers. For starters, the freewheeling Chris didn't actually buy the drugs he was using; he doesn't seem to have any money nor any ambition towards getting any money. "I'm a junkie." he says at one point with as much pride in his voice as a newborn's father saying "It's a boy." 

Bryon (Bill Oberst) creeping out Mike.

The drugs were given to Chris by some mutual friends of Chris and Mike and it's implied that they are really bad guys now, something Mike isn't aware of since he hasn't seen them in quite some time. Also, that cabin in the woods they're in? It's not his either and on top of that, it's on an Indian reservation and the tribe's spokesman Charles (Zahn McClarnon) isn't too fond of these guys being here without the tribe's OK. Mike bribes him to let them stay for few more days but if he had any sense, he would have left, especially after the dog is brutally killed by either by the Mike's former friends or by Charles and the tribe.


The most disturbing detail I'll give you is the fact that Chris didn't actually send Mike any email to begin with....       


The plot basically juggles these tidbits over and over again for the first 45 minutes or so, forcing you to accept these as truths first and then daring you to see where this goes. And then it goes elsewhere. You see it early on in bits and pieces but it really starts to get surreal when Mike, right after the dog is murdered, tracks down the dog's real owner Byron (Bill Oberst Jr, who might not be a household name yet but is well known to Internet users as the guy who creeps you out in this video here) and gets seriously creeped out by this guy too when Byron tries to explain what happened to some French guys who were in the area working on something. 

Chris and Mike beginning to notice something isn't right in these woods..

This scene is like the Silencio scene from Mulholland Drive because it's the scene that divides the slow burning first half of the movie from the faster paced second half. Byron's theory regarding what's really going on just might be fairly accurate. After we get past this scene things start happening really fast and this movie moves from a buddy flick to something a lot more surreal. And just when you think our guys are finally clear of the insanity, the ending reveals itself to be one hell of a gut punch. 




 I won't say nothing else about this movie except if you're a fan cerebral movies or horror movies, this movie is for you. You'll definitely be thinking about it for a while after it ends. What else do you need to hear from me? Just

 
watch it. Trust me. You'll like it.


Later, WORLD.
Smokkee Singleton




 

O is for 'One More Day' (#AtoZChallenge)

Hello, WORLD!! Smokkee here, still playing catch up in this A to Z blogging Challenge. This post was supposed to be posted last Friday, I believe. And I'm still talking about Marvel Comics but not the MCU this time. I'm talking about one of the most controversial story-lines the company ever put out. One More Day.

Meet Mephisto.

One More Day is a Spider Man story unlike any other Spidey story ever. You see, Spider Man does something completely selfish here. Thanks to the events of 'Civil War', the whole world knows Spidey is Peter Parker, including his enemies. His enemies target his loved ones, his wife Mary Jane and his beloved Aunt May. Some hitmen hired by Carlton Fisk / the Kingpin manage to shoot and critically wound Aunt May. She's dying. There's nothing that can be done for her. At least that's what Dr Strange tells him. He finds help in the most unlike ally.



Enter Mephisto. Depending on who you're asking, he's either a demon or Marvel's version of the devil. He tells Peter he will save Aunt May for one small request. I know what you're thinking: his soul. No. Well, yeah. Mephisto only wants his marriage to Mary Jane. He doesn't want to marry her. He wants to wipe out the marriage from ever existing.





Do you get the uproar over this story line now? It just doesn't fit in with his character at all. The most never-give-up super hero who faces, and beats, more unbeatable odds than any other hero, sells his marriage to the devil to save his Aunt May. That isn't very Spidey like, is it? The reason is Joe Quesada, one of Marvel's editors in chief, felt like dissolving the marriage would open the doors for better Spider Man stories in the future. No argument there. Most of my favorite Spidey stories are the newer wants penned by Dan Slott. Conversely, most of the hated Spider Man stories (Clone Saga comes to mind) happened during the marriage. That's not why most comic book fans hate the storyline. It's hated because it's resolved by having Spider-Man doing something Spider-Man simply would not do. It's like, say, Superman deciding to kill Zod before he kills somebody else instead of trying to find another way to stop him or something...

Whatever.

I like the story, actually. I didn't get upset with it personally but I get why a lot of people did. I also get why people didn't like the last Superman reboot for making Supes a murderer but they should just hate the movie cause it wasn't really that good, truth be told. Killing Zod at least gave me something to talk about, something the rest of the movie didn't do.

At least Marvel is trying to correct their mistake, somewhat. This is do out this summer as part of the Secret Wars event.


Now I wonder how all of this ties into the MCU.

Later, WORLD.

Smokkee Singleton

N IS FOR 'NO MORE MUTANTS' (#AtoZChallenge)

Hello, WORLD!! Smokkee here, again, talking about the MCU, again. You knew I would be. We're less than two weeks away from 'Age of Ultron', and I'm still high off that 13 episode rush Netflix provides called 'Daredevil'. So it's safe to say yes, Marvel's Cinematic Universe is still on my brain. Actually, make that Marvel in general since I've reverted back to reading comics again, a habit I thought I kicked for good more than a decade ago. OK, so I've had a few relapses here and there but I thought I was done with them for the most part.

I'm glad I wasn't. I saw some interesting things happening in the comics that just might make there way to the big screen or, if nothing else, might affect what happens in the MCU in the next few phases. For instance, the next Captain America standalone film is called 'Civil War'. I thought the Avengers 2 would be where this storyline made the leap from the comics to the big screen. I was wrong about when it would make that jump but I correctly guessed right here it was coming, eventually. 

Amazing Spider Man #698

Now I got another prediction for you. This one starts with the death of one of Marvel's biggest names: Spider-Man. He 'dies' in Amazing Spider Man's 700 issue. They 'killed' arguably their most famous character right in between both of the Marc Webb-helmed Amazing Spider Man films. 

OK, maybe 'dies' isn't the word to use. It wasn't like they completely 'killed' Spider Man; the 'Dying Wish' storyline had a dying Doctor Octopus finally get the best of Spider Man by switching bodies with him right before he died. Over the course of the next year (the time between the releases of ASM movies 1 and 2) we saw Ock trying his best to be a better Spider Man than Peter Parker ever was, with Marvel even replacing the Amazing Spider Man title with the name Ock was calling himself: the Superior Spider Man.  

Of course the real Peter Parker came back eventually, just in time to save Ock, one of Spider Man's

The look on Gobby's face when he realizes the real Spider Man is back: priceless.

arch enemies, from defeat at the hands of Peter's main arch nemesis, Green Goblin. More accurately, he came back in time for him to be Spider Man when ASM 2 was released, but that's not the point. It should be noted that the ASM films aren't part of the MCU (at least not yet). The right to use Spider Man in film was licensed by Marvel to Sony Pictures at that time. I think that's the real reason Marvel killed him off in the first place because now Spidey is now cleared to be a part of the MCU thanks to this deal between Marvel and Sony Pictures.       

The only reason I brought any of that up is not too long after that, Marvel killed off another insanely popular character. And this character is one we thought was almost unkillable. And this character is DEAD dead for sure, having died via suffocation. And this one hasn't came back yet even though I doubt he's gone for ever but at least we get to see Hugh Jackman play him a few more times in the future if he is.
 



Yep. RIP, Wolverine.





Now, it should be noted here that Wolverine and his fellow X-Men characters are also licensed out by Marvel, as was Spidey to Sony Pictures, to 20th Century Fox. 20th Century Fox also owns the rights to the cinematic version of Marvel's other well known superhero team, the Fantastic Four. The Fantastic Four is one of Marvel's longest running properties and they have a movie due out as well, the trailer for the movie was just released yesterday.  

So what does Marvel Comics do to help promote this new film for one of their longest running properties? They canceled the whole Fantastic Four comic book series! It's slated to end this month at issue 645. Why? probably the same reason why they killed Wolverine and possibly Spider Man. To eventually get the film rights to these properties back. Based on all of these happenings, I'm willing to bet Marvel's next course of action most likely can be summed up to these three words. 
 
"No more mutants."
That was uttered by none other than the Scarlett Witch, a mutant herself, at the end of Marvel Comic's 2005 company wide crossover event, 'House of M'. 'HoM' led to the 'Decimation' which seen almost 90% of the mutants in Marvel Comics lose their power. 'HoM' followed the 'Avengers Disassembled' storyline. 'AD' basically focused on the Avengers being manipulated by events caused by the Scarlett Witch's hexing ability and winds up being the reason the Avengers disband for a short while. 'AD's main characters besides the more popular Avengers were the Scarlet Witch (who causes the events), Dr Strange (who figured out who was behind these events), Vision and a bunch of versions of a villain named Ultron. With Scarlett Witch, Ultron, and the Vision set to appear in Age of Ultron and Dr Strange slated to have his own film in MCU's Phase 3, notice that most of these characters are now set to debut in the MCU in the near future.

You see the problem with the MCU using that storyline right now?

Since nobody has seen AoU yet, who's to say that it doesn't follow the Avengers Disassembled storyline? There was a company wide cross over event called Age of Ultron but I doubt seriously that this is the basis for the MCU film because it's biggest characters, the ones who have the most impact on the story, are Hank Pym (who'll debut in Ant Man, the last film of MCU's Phase 2), FF's Sue Richards, and multiple versions of X-Men's Wolverine. 

In the comics, the Avengers Disassembled storyline led directly into some of the best storylines Marvel has put out in recent times like the aforementioned 'Decimation', 'Secret Invasion', 'Planet Hulk', 'Dark Reign', and ended with the beginning of Marvel's Heroic Age. Another storyline from this period is the one that stands out for obvious reasons: 'Civil War'. In fact, 'Disassembled' almost directly leads into Civil War the same way were being told the MCU's AoU leads into the MCU's version of Civil War.

Which brings me to Phase 3's movie lineup. Dr Strange is slated to be the second of the Phase 3 films, which are kicked off with Civil War. You know what the last film in Phase 3 is slated to be? Inhumans. Now if you ask me why this is huge news, it's because the Inhumans are being set up in the comics as the replacement for mutants. No more mutants, remember? The only difference between mutants, whose film rights are owned by 20th Century Fox, and the mutants are the fact that mutants are born with there abilities while Inhumans are just humans who've been exposed to this stuff called Terrigan Mist which gives them basically the same abilities mutants have. And they are NOT licensed to 20th Century Fox. And we're meeting them right now too. Remember this scene from Marvel's Agents of SHIELD second season episode aptly titled 'What They Become':

That's the same Skye we met in the first season but now she has powers thanks to that mist.  She has since ran across more Inhumans, all with various powers. Bottom line is right now is a great time for Inhumans but it isn't a good time to be a mutant in Marvel Comics and it'll probably be like this until Marvel gets those movie rights back...

 If Marvel being willing to cancel one of their most popular and longest running books, as well as kill off one of their most popular characters, and are now trying to push these Inhumans as their next big thing, aren't all connected to who currently owns which movie rights, then I have no idea what's going on. Marvel's comics are all gearing up for this year's company wide story arch 'Secret Wars' as we speak. The biggest news that I've heard about this upcoming event so far are of Spider Man's One More Day storyline getting amended (FINALLY!!) and of the X Men being sent to a whole new world of their own, which Marvel is backtracking on as we speak.


Whatever, Marvel. As long as they continue to tell great stories, both in comics and in film, us fans won't care one bit. Wait, yes we do. You'll see how much we care in my next post, which just wrote itself since I'm sure you don't know what One More Day is or how ridiculous it is or even how it's a huge slap in the face to most Spider Man fans.

BRB. I promise.

Smokkee Singleton

   

K is For Kidnapped (A #Bizzee Pick) (#AtoZChallenge)

Hello, WORLD!! Smokkee here. And I'm adding a movie to my Bizzee Picks list today! I can't think of the last time I did that but whatever. We're adding one now.

The movie I'm adding to my list today is Secuestrados (2010, released with English subtitles as Kidnapped even though secuestrados roughly translates into abducted), a Spanish movie about a family terrorized by a group of three men who break into the home of a married couple and hold them as well as their daughter and her boyfriend, who came over to pick up the teenager for a date of some sorts, hostage. The criminal's plan is to take the father to various ATMs around their city and get the maximum amount of money that each of the ATMs allow out.  One of the bad guys accompanies the papa while the other two stays at home with the hostages, ready to shoot said hostages if a phone call from papa's kidnapper says papa deviated from the plan in any way.

That's all the plot info I'm gonna give you but I will add a few more tidbits as usual. I don't know what it is with me and films that end on the bleakest notes possible. If you've seen Funny Games, either the American version or the original, you know exactly what I mean by bleak. Funny Games had one of the bleakest endings I've ever ran across. Well, this movie sees that bleakness and raises it up a notch. Even with this somewhat mild spoiler, you have no idea where this movie goes. Another movie this puts me in the mind of is one of the best French horror movies I've ever seen, Inside because most of the action takes place within the house. Mostly though, this movie's atmosphere and tenseness throughout the film reminds me of Alfred Hitchcock's Rope. A lot of stuff doesn't happen early on in the film but you'll feel like something is ABOUT to happen throughout the movie. You know violence is coming. You're just not gonna be ready for it when it arrives.

 Let me know how you enjoyed (or hated) this movie if you see it based on my thumbs up and just in case my thumbs up ain't enough, check out this trailer below.

Later, WORLD.

Smokkee Singleton

 

J is for Just Binge! (#AtoZChallenge)

Hello, WORLD!! Smokkee here. Yeah I know. The J post of the A to Z Challenge was supposed to be wrote this past Saturday. My bad. I was preoccupied with Daredevil, a new Netflix show I just knew I was going to binge watch, which I did. I thoroughly enjoyed it's dark tone. It certainly helped the show feel more like a Daredevil comic at times. My only complaint about the show itself is that Bullseye was a no-show on it. I just knew one of Daredevils biggest adversaries would make at least one appearance but I was wrong. Luckily he wasn't missed. Wilson Fisk was more than adequate as season 1's main villain and I'm sure we'll see Bullseye in season 2.

That was my only complaint about the show itself. My other complaint is that now I feel like binge watching something else... but what though? We're still months away from the next Netflix exclusive Marvel TV show AKA Jessica Jones and the show after that, Luke Cage, isn't slated to appear until 2016.

I got an idea of which series I'm going to watch. Here's a few of my favorite series you can catch in their entirety on Netflix as well as 8 shows that I haven't started yet but I might start soon based on all the good things I've been hearing about them.




First, some of my favorites:

Breaking Bad

    This show isn't too complicated to describe partially because I know you've seen it. Who hasn't at this point? Just in case you missed because you just came back from another universe, it's about a high school teacher who discovers he has cancer and how he comes to terms with his impending demise basically. I could leave it at that but I don't feel like I'd be doing the show any justice. See, I
forgot to mention that he taught chemistry and in an effort to ensure his family doesn't struggle financially after he dies, he eventually uses that extensive chemistry knowledge to start cooking crystal meth. The stellar cast, including Bryan Cranston and his Emmy Award winning performance as the teacher turned drug dealer Walter White, takes this abnormal concept and makes it completely believable.


The Walking Dead

    Here's another series I shouldn't have to describe to you but if I need to it's about a group of people who are struggling to coexist in there crazy world. Oh, and there's also zombies they have to contend with as well but the biggest threat to the survivors are themselves. 









Orange Is The New Black

    THIS is the show that had me break down and get Netflix in the first place. An engaged woman's past comes back to haunt her in the worst way: thanks to her girlfriend-at-that-time's drug dealing participation, they wind up in prison. Almost everyone involved in this show shines and it's one show were the star (Taylor Schilling as the new convict Piper Chapman) takes a backseat to almost the entire supporting cast. 


American Horror Story

    This is a horror anthology series. So far they all have starred Jessica Lange, Sarah Paulson, Frances Conroy and Evan Peters in various roles.  Each of the first four seasons has tackled a different story including ghosts, insane asylums, witch's covens, and circus freaks respectively. While each season works on it's own as a standalone series, the best reason I'd rewatch each of them is to find out how each of these season are all connected as the show runners have stated. 


Daredevil

    It's Daredevil and it completely gets rid of the bad taste in your mouth that the Ben Affleck / Jennifer Garner adaptation surely left. Oh, and according to this article on Netflix's Daredevil, my only complaint about the show is invalid. Bullseye DID make an appearance. I just didn't catch it or a lot of other Marvel tidbits.


Marvel Agents Of SHIELD

    Since I'm on the subject... Marvel's Cinematic Universe is now one of the best film series of this decade and hopefully the three Netflix shows set to debut after Daredevil are just as good as DD. Now before DD there was two other MCU shows to catch. One was Agent Carter (which I believe is now on Hulu Plus in it's entirety) which took place during Captain America's cinematic origin and revolved around Agent Peggy Carter, who most likely would have been Mrs Captain America had he not turned into a popsicle. Fans also got to meet Howard Stark again and the real Jarvis for the first time in this series too. This show came out after Agents of SHIELD found it's footing. If you're not familiar with this show it revolves around the recently deceased SHIELD Agent Phil Coulson, the very same guy who was killed by Loki in the 1st Avenger movie, and how he managed to come back from the dead. It's way deeper than that and it seems to have HUGE implications on the future of the MCU. It's only right it returns the favor; Thor: The Dark World and especially Captain America: The Winter Soldier had just as huge an impact on this show. While season 2 is currently only on Hulu, you can catch season 1 on Netflix. 






And as far as shows I haven't watched yet:


Justified

  I'm ashamed to say I've never caught any of this series and I have no valid reason for not doing so already. For starters, it stars the always reliable Timothy Olyphant as a US Marshal named Raylan Givens. Raylan is a character from one of my favorite books, Pronto, written by one of my top five

favorite authors of all time, Elmore Leonard. If you've seen Get Shorty, Out Of Sight, or Jackie Brown, you're familiar with Leonard's work already but trust me find the books if you really want to do Leonard any justice. I'm sure all but the last and final season are on Netflix and the last season may be uploaded by the fall since the final episode aired yesterday.
  


House Of Cards.

  I've heard about this show every since it's inception. It's been Emmy nominiated. And it stars Kevin Spacey! Yet, I haven't had time to watch it yet. Or maybe it's the fact that I find politics
, both real life and fictional, extremely boring. Regardless, I'll still get around to watching this show soon.


Archer
  
 OK. I gotta admit I've seen a lot of Archer but with all that's going on, not to mention all of the
episodes I've missed, I think I better start again from the beginning. It's one of the best spy shows on TV not titled Agents Of SHIELD. Just don't hold the facts that it's a comedy and it's animated against it.


Broadchurch

    I fell in love with Fox's 10 episode murder mystery series Gracepoint from the start. At least I thought I did. What I didn't know was Gracepoint is an almost shot for shot remake of this BBC series. I love the remake but I'm more than just a bit curious about the original since most remakes fail to live up to the source material.


Black Mirror

    I've only recently discovered this anthology series in the vein of The Twilight Zone. If you're a fan of those type of shows, this show will make a great addition to your must-watch list.



Twin Peaks
    Like Archer, I've seen a lot of these episodes. Unlike Archer, I was extremely young when I saw them so a lot of the going ons left me a bit perplexed. I loved how creepy a watch it was though and it's about time I brush up on this show anyway, since a new Twin Peaks series is already in the works. 


Sons Of Anarachy
    If you ask anybody what is the best TV show of the past 10-15 years, you'll hear either Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, Walking Dead, The Wire, or this show more often than not. Of these five series, SOA is the only one I haven't gotten addict to yet. I may be the only person on the planet who hasn't but I have yet to see this show about a motorcycle gang and the obstacles they face. 



Well, that's it for this post. If you don't hear from me for a while, you already know what I'm up to.



Later WORLD.
Smokkee Singleton

H is for Heroes (#AtoZChallenge)

Hello WORLD!! Smokkee here, naturally. Heroes is actually too broad a summary for this post. I'm not touching on any of the comic books-to-movies/TV shows DC are currently putting out and I'm not addressing the return of the NBC TV show of the same name.

I really wanted to post this post as my M post as 'M is for MCU' for the A to Z blogging Challenge but I just couldn't wait. I'm too excited! I'm glad it's Thursday but I'm really looking forward to this upcoming Friday.
It's been a somewhat long week but that's not why I'm excited, well, not entirely. Tomorrow, Netflix debuts it's Daredevil series set in Marvel's Cinematic Universe or MCU for short. Thankfully, we're less than 24 hours away now. I was excited about this when I first heard about it, but the more info I hear about it, the more I can't wait.

I'd love to see how Daredevil will connect to it's other MCU properties like Agent Carter and Marvel's Agents of SHIELD even though a little bit of info has leaked about the Agents of SHIELD and Daredevil connection already.  And I'm wondering if this article on how Daredevil will change the MCU is as accurate as this article touching on the same topic regarding how Agent Carter changed the MCU was. Plus we know this is only the beginning of the MCU on Netflix. Hereos for Hire teammates Iron Fist and Luke Cage (aka Power Man), and Jessica Jones (aka Mrs Luke Cage in the comic books) are all slated to have Netflix shows in the near future so if Daredevil works half as well as expected, we may see more MCU shows soon. I've read an article about a show based on the Punisher, who has yet to be done right in his previous cinematic portrayals. Ghost Rider too; even though I feel Nicholas Cage was surprisingly adequate as Johnny Blaze I'd sure like to see a version of this character that's closer to it's comic book counterpart.



With that said, even as good as I expected DD to be, I doubt it'll become my new favorite MCU show. Agents Of Shield already has that title on lock and today, news just broke that this show will be getting a spinoff! It's the first show that had the MCU brand on it and while it might have started off sluggish, it sure knew how to pick up speed big time. I was interested in how they would bring Agent Phil Coulson back into the MCU since he was killed in The Avengers (I should have said spoiler alert but let's be honest: who hasn't seen The Avengers at this point? Find me somebody. Go ahead. I'll wait.) and this show thrived off of that mystery at first but the pacing was a turn off to most people.

Skye becomes Inhuman-ly powerful.

Which was a shame because those who stayed loyal to this show were rewarded with a great reason to rewatch the first season because apparently we'd missed a ton of obvious clues as far as where the show was heading. The second film in the Captain America film series, The Winter Soldier, was released in conjunction with this TV show midway through season 1 and it changed the whole dynamic of the show big time since (I won't spoil it for the people who have not seen CA: TWS but if you really want to know, click this link right here).

Since that moment, the rest of season 1 and the entirety of season 2 so far has had it's foot to the pedal in terms of action and developments. I can't think of any moment from a network TV show that was as huge as the one from season 2 featuring Agent Skye breaking out of a cocoon. Her transformation marks the first appearance of the Inhumans in the MCU. To make that tidbit even more interesting, besides a possibility that the spin off might be focused on the Inhumans, we KNOW for sure that the Inhumans have a MCU feature film due out as well and if this article is to be believed, this may happen sooner than expected. 





I've got one more post I wanted to post for my H post so I'm gonna cut this short right here. I jsut wonder if The Avengers: Age of Ultron will have a scene as powerful as the one up above. If not, I hope that Hulk Vs Iron Man is at least as entertaining as the best fight scene in the whole series so far..

On second thought, maybe I'm more excited about tomorrow because it puts me one day closer to 05/01/15. I'm ready for Ultron and I'm sure I'm not alone.

Later WORLD.

Smokkee Singleton



     

E is for Excitement (#AtoZChallenge)

Hello, WORLD! Smokkee here, once again. Once again, I can't think of an excellent E post for this A to Z Blogging Challenge so I turned back to my movie and more review blog hoping some idea would come to me.

The only thing I can think of is excitement.


Well, I am actually excited right now for a few upcoming entertainment events. For this blog post, I'll just list my top 5 reasons for excitement:

5.) I'm FINALLY going to see 'It Follows' this weekend. I've been putting it off for the past 2 weeks and I can';t wait any longer. If you have no idea what that is, watch this trailer ASAP!!

4.) Another horror movie I'm looking forward to seeing just released it's first trailer. As much as I loved the first movie, Sinister 2 looks like it's gonna be at least as good as the first one, maybe even scarier and if so, I'm fine with that. 

 4.) Daredevil is due on Netflix this Friday April 10, 2015. If you're a fan of Marvel's Cinematic Universe, this is a must watch series. And if not, watch this trailer and tell me you're still not interested.

2.) Speaking about the MCU, this is right around the corner:

1) And lastly, the day after Age of Ultron premiers on 05/01/15, this happens.

 I see me consuming a lot of popcorn in the near future. You already know I'm looking forward to it.

Later, WORLD!
Smokkee Singleton

A TO Z CHALLENGE

Hello WORLD!!!

I'm baaaaaack. Maybe for a limited time (for now), maybe not. I have been meaning to work on this blog, well, any of my blogs but I haven't seemed to been able to do so. Its not that I haven't had anything to blog about or I'm tired of writing. I'll admit I haven't been doing too much of anything with this blog in particular lately partially due to a lack of movies even worth writing about (2014 was overpopulated with flat out horrible to sub-par movies) but also due to the fact that I've still been working on my first book, which admittedly is taking me way longer to finish than I thought it would.  I'm still churning away at it. I've invested a lot of time in my characters to not see their stories through to the end. (OAN: I'm anxious to know what happens to them myself. I never thought I, as a writer, would be to keep me, as a reader, in suspense when I typically invented them and their worlds. I find that to be a pleasant surprise, one I surely didn't think was possible.)

Before I go any further here, I need to tell you a few things. One is this won't be a movie review post. I know a few movies I'd love to write a review for but all of that is coming in due time. Secondly, let me tell you what drew me back to working on my blog at this time.

I logged onto Twitter this morning and the first trending topic that caught my eye was #AtoZChallenge. If you know me you know I'm like a moth to a light bulb when it comes to challenges so I had to look into it. Based on the info I found here, it's a challenge for all bloggers to right a blog post for every letter of the alphabet, one a day every day this month except Sunday. 26 days for 26 letters of the alphabet.

So with the basic description out of the way, I'll now try to fulfill my obligation for today. Just not on this blog. My A post will actually be posted on my personal blog Smokkee's WORLD Prime since I have the perfect topic for my A post already in mind. In fact, if you look here, you'll see I've already wrote it. What I want to do on here though is add a few reviews of my favorite movies (I affectionately call them Bizzee Picks) so a lot of posts in this challenge will be for movies. Some, like my H post for sure, will be about my favorite books. 

26 days, 26 posts. I'm ready if you're ready, WORLD.

Smokkee

 

Smokkee's 2015 Oscar Picks

HELLO WORLD!!!

It's been almost a year since I last posted. Took a break for damn near a year but I'm back right on time to give you my picks for 87th Annual Academy Awards ceremony. Last year, I got 9 outta 13 of the major awards right (I only failed to pick the right Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress). Anyway, on to this years picks:

BEST WRITING OSCAR: BIRDMAN

This award could easily go to GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL. Easily. There's nothing trite about a Wes Anderson's film whatsoever. Every movie he makes has his style stamped all over it but aside from that , they all feel fresh and unique. BOYHOOD and NIGHTCRAWLERS nominations are not as shocking as the nomination awarded to FOXCATCHER which is based on a true story (I'm still asking how is that original again?) but truly this award is GBH's to lose. And it will lose. From the opening shot to the ambiguous ending shot, BIRDMAN felt less scripted and more ad-libbed. Even though it had a meta-type feel to it, it truly was one of the most original movies I've seen in a while.

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: AMERICAN SNIPER
I'm not picking these winners based on which movies I liked. WHIPLASH was fantastic and probably my favorite movie out of this group but I can't see how this all-too-familiar movie can be beat out the rest of the movies on this list. THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING worked well too, possibly well enough to win this award.  INHERENT VICE was OK, I guess, but it doesn't inspire me to read the source material. Ditto THE IMITATION GAME. That leaves AMERICAN SNIPER which wasn't one of my favorite flicks of the year but it did have everybody talking about.

VISUAL EFFECTS: GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY
I would give this award to X-MEN just for that Quicksilver scene alone. Not sure why the CAPTAIN AMERICA sequel was nominated but doesn't have a chance against it's MCU brethren GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY. DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES was astonishing to watch, and the apes seemed so very human. DAWN & INTERSTELLAR have the best shots at walking away with this award, but I'm almost willing to bet Marvel's heroes win again.



SOUND EFFECTS: INTERSTELLAR.
No other movie on this list begs to be seen at IMAX. The choice here is obvious.




SOUND EDITING: INTERSTELLAR. 
Unless THE HOBBIT win another award for Peter Jackson here, INTERSTELLAR wins here too.








BEST MUSIC - ORIGINAL SONG: Glory from SELMA
I LOVED 'Everything is Awesome' from THE LEGO MOVIE. It was as addictive as last year's winner 'Let It Go'. It should win for sure; in fact, it's my official pick to win but I wouldn't be surprised if SELMA is rewarded this award instead. The song is great as is but it's so perfect for the movie, I almost can see it happening.

BEST DIRECTOR: Wes Anderson for GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL
Anderson is FINALLY getting his due this year.

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE: THE BOXTROLLS

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Emma Stone, BIRDMAN

Patricia Arquette's turn in BOYHOOD is the only other nomination I see with a remote chance at winning this award. Emma Stone is almost a lock for this order. BIRDMAN was a great all around movie but if there was anybody besides the star of the movie that stood out, it was Emma.


BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Mark Ruffalo FOXCATCHER
This year's toughest catogory. The only reason I won't mention how good Edward Norton was in BIRDMAN is he basically played Edward Norton. JK Simmons (WHIPLASH) and Robert Duvall (THE JUDGE) each upstaged the stars of their movie's (Miles Teller and Robert Downey Jr, respectively) but what Ethan Hawke did in BOYHOOD was phenomenal. The only reason I say But Mark Ruffalo's turn as Dave Shultz will beat out Hawke is I didn't even recognize him even though I knew he was in the movie!

BEST ACTRESS: Rosamund Pike GONE GIRL

Could anybody else possibly win this award?  Maybe Julianne Moore but c'mon. How many Oscars does she need? Pike wins this award easy.


BEST ACTOR: Micheal Keaton BIRDMAN

This was supposed to be Micheal Keaton's comeback vehicle. Did it work? Absolutely. He's baaackkk. His only serious competition here is the oft nominated Bradley Cooper for AMERICAN SNIPER and the sort of surprising nom for Steve Carrell's turn in FOXCATCHER. As good as they were, I still feel this is Keaton's award to lose.



and finally, BEST PICTURE: BIRDMAN

When I first seen it last year, I was positive that GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL would not only get nominated but it would win. Then I fell in love with BIRDMAN and I got a change of heart. BOYHOOD, SELMA, and WHIPLASH all deserved their noms. I'm not sold on the idea of THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING or THE IMITATION GAME winning this award but both films are definitely better than the overrated AMERICAN SNIPER (yes I said it!), even with Bradley Cooper proving he can handle meatier, serious roles like he handles his comedic opportunities. But BIRDMAN is one of those rare films that works on every level it wanted to and some they didn't even know they were on. Not to mention that everybody carried their own weight (in more ways than one). A true standout film in a year of not many stand outs.