Movie Review: Act of Valor

Act of Valor provides an interesting concept for a film. It centers around a group of Navy SEALS played by real life Navy SEALS attempting to thwart the plans of terrorist planning to strike the US on it's own soil.  Act of Valor is a film that I can appreciate the concept of and the amount of work that these real-life heroes put into it, but it's far from flawless. The acting and story are pretty flat. It wasn't so much the acting from the SEALS (clearly they're in the military and not professional actors), but the professional actors are completely awful. The two villains in particular provide two of the most laughable, overacted performances I've seen in years. The story was also incompetent as hell. The plot doesn't really go anywhere and seems like it was thrown together in a few hours on separate days by many different people who didn't communicate with each other. Thankfully, the real star of the movie is the action, and that is where Act of Valor delivers. The action scenes are great. They are loaded with real-life military tactics and a lot of first-person shots to make it that much more realistic. The action scenes are long and done on a grand scale which provides the film with its saving grace. This film is completely saved by the intensity and realism of the action. I pin-pointed Act of Valor months ago after seeing the trailer when I said the action would be great and everything else would be horrible. The action is good enough to make this a decent watch, but this could have been a much better film if they had hired good actors to play the non-SEAL parts and a screenwriter to write a serviceable story.

3/5 Stars

Movie Review: Savages

As much as I love movies, I have seen next to none of Oliver Stone's films. What I do know about his films is recently they haven't particularly well-received. Savages should put an end to the streak for his fans.

Savages puts Stone back in his comfort zone. This is a gritty crime drama that is much more in his wheelhouse than the only other Stone film I've seen (the terrible football drama Any Given Sunday). It's clear his touch as a director is much more suited towards this type of film than the other types of drama he's been churning out recently. He thrives off of pitch-black, seedy storytelling and Savages is full of just that. Savages deceives it's audience a bit with it's action-heavy trailer. While there is action in it, This is a definitely a pretty slow movie in the first half. It takes a while for the characters and the stakes of the situation to unfold, but it's worth the wait. Once the Mexican cartel is introduced and O (Blake Lively) is kidnapped the movie really gets going. It moves along at a steady pace from then on and is good throughout, until the last 20 minutes when it becomes great. The last 20 minutes are utterly fantastic. There are some interesting turns near and during the climax that makes this movie a lot better. For me the ending made the movie. It's completely unexpected and I really enjoyed that it was open-ended and didn't really explain much. A lot of people are going to be pissed off at the ending (I heard a few groans in my theater last night), but I liked that it wasn't what you expected for a movie like this and it made me enjoy the movie quite a bit more. The acting is scattered in terms of quality in this film with performances ranging from alright (Taylor Litsch, Blake Lively) to good (Aaron Johnson, Salma Hayek) to excellent (John Travolta, and especially Benicio Del Toro who steals the show from everyone as the Mexican drug cartel's enforcer). Despite no one doing a poor job, the acting is simultaneously one of the films biggest drawbacks and strengths. Savages isn't perfect and it's a film that requires patience to be rewarded, but it's definitely worth the wait. It's able to blend a solid storyline with some standout acting, sequences of insanely graphic violence (There isn't that much violence in the movie overall, but when it happens it's very gruesome ) , and a fantastic ending that makes you think afterwards. Oliver Stone shouldn't stray from making these types of movies again, He's a natural when it comes to dark stories like this and his direction benefits this film a lot. Savages will no doubt polarize audiences (just like it did critics), but i found to be a great movie and I like it the more I think about.

4/5 Stars

Album Review: Periphery-Periphery II

Periphery has come a long way in two years. They've ridden a wave of popularity of their debut self-titled album, toured with a wide range of acts including Protest The Hero, Fair to Midland, and Fear Factory and even became the founding fathers of an imaginary genre (djent). Two short years later and Periphery is back with their second full-length album and it's an even greater success than their first album.

Peirphery II is a logical stepping stone for Periphery. It's not too different from their older material and it won't alienate old fans of the band, but there is a substantial amount of growth in all aspects of the band. The most substantial growth occurs in the songwriting department. The groove elements and electronic/ambient sections of their sound are still very much present, but there is enhanced focus on the progressive elements. The more melodic moments makes for some of the most effective, haunting, and just plain great songs of Periphery's career. "Luck as a Constant" and "Scarlet" are beautiful, soaring progressive metal songs with stunning melodies and the best use of Spencer Sotelo's vocals to date. These songs have so much depth yet at the same time are infectious as all hell and are bound to get stuck in your head while at the same time blow you away with the stunning musicianship exhibited by the whole band.  Periphery doesn't forget their heavier side either with shorter tracks like "Face Palm Mute" and "The Gods Must Be Crazy!". No matter which side of their sound they are going for going for Periphery nails it on this record. Another huge leap-forward for Periphery is the vocal work from Spencer Sotelo. It's clear he busted his ass doing vocals for this album and his hard work pays dividends for both styles of vocals he does. His cleans are better and more refined than ever and his screams are much, much improved (They're are actually pretty fucking brutal now). Sotelo was already in the top-teir of metal vocalists, but his performance on this record shoots him up even highter on that list. He is nothing short of an incredible vocalist.

Another cool thing Periphery did on this album is invite guest guitarists to do solos on the album. This is an idea that I wish more bands would do. It brings some different styles of playing to the music and I really admire what Periphery has done here with their wide-range of excellent guitarists. Jazz-fusion guitarist Guthrie Govan ("Have A Blast"),  progressive metal icon John Petrucci (and ironically Periphery guitarist Jake Bowen's uncle) of Dream Theater ("Erised") and new Faceless gutiarist Wes Hauch ("Mile Zero") unsurprisingly deliver fantastic solos. What did surprise me is the that best solo of the bunch was from Wes Hauch. No disrespect to Govan or Petrucci, they are two of the finest guitar players of all-time, but Hauch's solo blew my fucking mind. As a huge fan of The Faceless, I am absolutely elated to see what he will bring to the band on their new album (If it ever sees the light of day). Kudos to Periphery for being the first band in a long time to have multiple guest solos on one album and I hope more bands follow suite in the future.

Periphery II is another success for Periphery. They have continued to grow and mature as a band, while keeping their sound in tact. The whole band stepped their game up and it pays off big time. This album is sure to please old Periphery fans and more than likely win them some new ones as well. This seems like an album that will continue to get better over time and there are good odds that my rating will go up in the coming months. Job well done Periphery and I'm stoked to see them again at Summer Slaughter next month.

4/5 Stars
Standout Tracks
1.Luck as a Constant
2.Scarlet
3.Mile Zero

Album Review: Nile-At the Gate of Sethu

South Carolina tech-death masters Nile have almost always been at the top of the heap when it comes to technical death metal bands. They are responsible for some of the most complex, innovative, heavy, and flat-out amazing material that the genre has to offer. This high standard that they have set for themselves is exactly why I was incredibly letdown by their newest release At the Gate of Sethu.

Saying At the Gate of Sethu is a major letdown is an understatement. I straight-up did not expect something this stale-sounding from a band like Nile. At the Gate of Sethu is especially disappointing considering Nile is coming off arguably their best album in Those Whom the Gods Detest. From the minute the album started I knew it was going to be underwhelming in comparison to their other material. The riffs aren't as catchy, the vocals aren't as good, and the production is completely flat and sloppy. It completely threw me off at first and I didn't even think I was listening to a completed Nile album. It sounded like it was rushed and far from complete (Which is really odd considering Those Whom the Gods Detest came out three years ago and they had ample time to write this record.) As the album progressed it has it's fair share of ups and downs. On the downside, the Middle Eastern influences are almost completely absent and they have introduced these grating, obnoxious clean vocals on a few songs. The lack of Middle Eastern influence takes away a big part of what makes Nile so unique as a band. The Middle Eastern influences aren't even thrown into a forefront of song until the final track "The Chaining of the Inqitious", which is unsurprisingly the best track on the album. The clean vocals are an even a bigger problem than the lack of their Middle Eastern influences. The clean vocals were a nice thought to try add another element to their music, but they just don't work at all. I'm all for experimentation in music, but this was definitely a failed experiment by Nile. Really the only saving grace that lifts this album from the depths of mediocrity to being half-decent is Karl Sanders. Although the riffs are generally not as inspired as usual, he still throws in some great riffs sporadically throughout the album. More importantly his solos are still amazing. His solo work is primarily why this album isn't completely subpar.

At the Gate of Sethu is immensely disappointing. Although it's still a decent, listenable record, I expected much better from Nile. It may be a curse for them after releasing a completely awesome album they release a disappointing one (The same thing happened with Anhillation of the Wicked  and Ithyphallic). Nile is still an excellent technical death metal band, this is just them at their absolute worst. Without a doubt a contender for most disappointing album of the year.

3/5 Stars
Standout Tracks
1.The Chaining of the Inqitious
2.Supreme Humanism of Megalomania
3.The Inevitable Degradation of Flesh

2012 Mid-Year Report: Film

2012 has been an excellent year for movies so far. Almost everything to come out this year has been great and managed live up to the hype . It's been a strong year for all types of movies, but comedies have been particularly strong. 21 Jump Street and Ted are two of the funniest movies to come out in the past few years while American Reunion, The Dictator, and to a lesser extent That's My Boy also provided big laughs. Hopefully 2012 can keep up it's consistency in the last six months. Here is my full list of the movies I've seen this year from worst to best complete with ratings.
 

21.Ghost Rider: Spirit Of Vengeance(1.5/5)

20.This Means War (2.5/5)

19.Wrath of the Titans (3/5)

18.The Grey (3.5/5)

17.Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (3.5/5)

16.Man on a Ledge (3.5/5)

15.Underworld: Awakening (3.5/5)

14.Project X (4/5)

13.Piranha 3DD (4/5)

12.Goon (4/5)

11.Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie (4/5)

10.That's My Boy (4/5)

9.Contraband (4/5)

8.Men In Black III (4/5)

7.Safe House (4/5)

6.Chronicle (4/5)

5.The Dictator(4/5)

4.American Reunion(4/5)

3.Ted(4.5/5)

2.The Avengers(4.5/5)

1.21 Jump Street (4.5/5)

2012 Mid-Year Report: Music

2012 has been a solid, but not amazing year for music at the moment. 2012 has to live in the shadow of 2011, which very well could have been the best year for music in my lifetime. So far quite a few bands have either exceeded (Job For A Cowboy, Every Time I Die, and especially Death Grips) lived up to (High on Fire, Periphery, Lamb of God) and fell beneath (Meshuggah and Nile released the two most disappointing not only of this year, but possibly in the past few years) my expectations for them. There is a lot of releases I'm excited for the second half of the year including Between the Buried and Me, Deftones, As I Lay Dying, Killswitch Engage, Converge, Born of Osiris, The Contortionist, Testament, The Sword, Hatebreed, Devin Townsend,  After the Burial, Gaza, All That Remains, and hopefully/maybe even The Faceless (If their record ever comes out, It's like the progressive death metal version of Chinese Democracy at this point in time) so 2012 very well could live up to 2011 with the amount of great bands releasing potentially great album in the second half of the year. Without further ado, Here is my current list of all the album's and EP's I've heard this year from worst to best.

EP's

4.TesseracT-Persepective(2.5/5)

3.Hodgy Beats-Untitled EP(3.5/5)

2.T.R.A.M-Lingua Franca(3.5/5)

1.Brother Ali-The Bite-Marked Heart(3.5/5)

LP's

36.The Mars Volta-Noctourniquet(2/5)

35.Van Halen-A Different Kind of Truth(2.5/5)

34.Chiddy Bang-Breakfast(2.5/5)

33.Sleigh Bells-Reign of Terror(3/5)

32.Lacuna Coil-Dark Adrenaline(3/5)

31.Miss May I-At Heart(3/5)

30.Nile-At the Gate of Sethu(3/5)

29.Meshuggah-Koloss(3/5)

28.Psycroptic-The Inherited Repression(3.5/5)

27.Jack White-Blunderbuss(3.5/5)

26.The Ghost Inside-Get What You Give(3.5/5)

25.Eluveitie-Helvetios(3.5/5)

24.Aborted-Global Flatline(3.5/5)

23.Cancer Bats-Dead Set On Living(3.5/5)

22.Cannibal Corpse-Torture(3.5/5)

21.Municipal Waste-The Fatal Feast...Waste In Space(3.5/5)

20.Shadows Fall-Fire from the Sky(3.5/5)

19.War of Ages-Return to Life(3.5/5)

18.Cattle Decapitation-Monolith of Inhumanity(4/5)

17.Spawn of Possession-Incurso(4/5)

16.Whitechapel-Whitechapel(4/5)

15.Goatwhore-Blood for the Master(4/5)

14.Black Breath-Sentenced to Life(4/5)

13.Hour of Penance-Sedition(4/5)

12.3 Inches of Blood-Long Live Heavy Metal(4/5)

11.Overkill-The Electric Age(4/5)

10.Veil of Maya-Eclipse(4/5)

9.Job for A Cowboy-Demonoracy(4/5)

8.Gojira-L'enfant Sauvage(4/5)

7.Periphery-II: This Time It's Personal(4/5)

6.Dying Fetus-Reign Supreme(4/5)

5.Every Time I Die-Ex Lives(4/5)

4.God Forbid-Equilibrium(4.5/5)

3.Death Grips-The Money Store(4.5/5)

2.High on Fire-De Vermis Mysteriis(4.5/5)

1.Lamb of God-Resolution(5/5)

July In Film

July might prove to be the most successful box-office month of the summer with many huge releases on deck this month. Hopefully July can continue the trend of quality films this year (which shouldn't be too hard because July has a lot of films with potential). Here my thoughts on the entire slate of July films.

Films I want to see:
3.Savages (7/6)-I am not a big fan of Oliver Stone, but this movie looks to be entertaining as all hell. I love gritty, super-violent movies like this and it's been a while since Stone has done anything like this. Throw in the early postive reviews and a great cast including Aaron Johnson, Bencio Del Toro, Salma Hayek, John Travolta, and Blake Lively and we could have a gem on our hands here.

2.The Watch (7/27)-This movie looks to be incredibly hilarious. Ben Stiller, Jonah Hill, and Vince Vaughn are all really funny and this movie was written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, who are one of the best writing pairs in Hollywood in my opinion. This very well could be one of the funniest films of 2012 if it's as good as I think it will be.

1.The Dark Knight Rises (7/20)-Even though The Dark Knight disappointed me (It was still excellent, I just didn't think it was the best thing ever like a lot of people did), I am still excited as hell for The Dark Knight Rises. Christopher Nolan can do almost nothing wrong and the additions of Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Marion Cotillard, and Joesph Gordon-Levitt to the cast make this even better. I have no doubt that Nolan will close out his Batman trilogy well, We'll just have to wait and see just how well.

Films I am not sure about:
The Amazing Spider-Man (7/3)-I am still against rebooting the Spider-Man franchise after only ten years. Even though Spider-Man is my favorite Marvel superhero, I just can't get really excited about The Amazing Spider-Man. The trailers are just alright and I don't really like the narrative direction they are following in this movie. My gut feeling is that it will be a decent, but ultimately unmemorable comic book film (Much like last year's Captain America: The First Avenger). I will still see it, but definitely not in theaters.

Ice Age: Continental Drift (7/13)-I haven't seen the full-length trailer for this movie and I didn't see the last one (The second installment Ice Age: The Meltdown I didn't like at all though), so I can't really say much too about it. From what I have seen, It doesn't look too bad, but I highly doubt I will ever see it.

Films I have zero interest in seeing:
Katy Perry: Part of Me (7/5)-I enjoy Katy Perry's music about as much I as I enjoy being waterboarded so this is an obvious pass for me.

Step Up: Revolution (7/27)-I can't even believe there is a fourth one of these movies. I will admit (shamefully) that I kind of liked the first one, but this is just getting stupid by now. There's only so much you can do with this concept and that has been long accomplished.