My Top 10 Eminem Songs

Eminem has been one of my favorite artists for a very long time. This list is just my 10 personal favorites, and the links to the videos that accompany them.

#10: When I'm Gone

#9: No Love

#8: Mockingbird

#7: Bad Guy

#6: Without Me

#5: The Real Slim Shady

#4: Stan

#3: Till I Collapse

#2: Cleanin Out My Closet

#1: Lose Yourself

Ted 2

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In some ways, Ted 2 suffers because it's not as good as the first movie. It's also an improvement over Seth MacFarlane's previous A Million Ways to Die in the West (which I also happened to enjoy despite its noticeable problems). For the record, I still think Ted 2 is an enjoyable enough comedy, and one of the better comedy sequels out there. Once again, Mark Wahlberg and Seth MacFarlane have great comedic timing and chemistry together as John Bennett and Ted respectively. Amanda Seyfried steps in as Mila Kunis's replacement, playing a lawyer who is trying to help Ted be seen as a human in the eyes of the law. Seyfried handles the comedy really well, acting as the straight woman, while still having her goofy moments. The plot feels a little jumbled (a problem that seems to occur in a lot of Seth MacFarlane's work, as though he struggles with trying to figure out exactly what he wants the main plot of the movie to be). The Hasbro subplot really didn't need to be included in the movie, and feels as though it was only added so that Giovanni Ribisi could be in the movie, and his storyline just felt rehashed from the first movie. Jokes don't always land, but when they hit, they really work for me. Is Ted 2 a masterpiece that's going to stand the test of time, and be compared to the likes of The Dark Knight, The Empire Strikes Back, or The Godfather Part II? No, but I don't think that was the goal it was aiming for. It works as a movie that you can just turn on and watch at your own leisure.

8 / 10  

The Veil

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In The Veil, Sarah Hope (American Horror Story’s Lily Rabe) is the last survivor of a cult. Documentary filmmaker Maggie Price (Jessica Alba) comes across something that hints at documented footage that was never revealed. Along the way, secrets, demons, and the monsters within will all be unleashed when the documentary crew takes Sarah back to the place where everything happened. Lily Rabe is a talented actress and does a pretty good job as the character of Sarah. She manages to come off as distant, aloof, and clearly haunted by the events of her past. Even though Jessica Alba still seems to barely be able to say her lines, she does have enough charm here to make her character somewhat likable, and she’s clearly trying. By far, the standout performer here is Thomas Jane, bringing just the right amount of charisma needed to play the film’s villainous Jim Jones-like cult leader. Unfortunately, this movie does suffer from some of the most annoying cliches plaguing modern horror movies. Firstly, most of the main characters are unlikable and forgettable. Hell, one of the characters, named Ed, disappears early on in the movie, and I was just like who the fuck is Ed? Literally five minutes after I was told their names, I’d pretty much forgotten them. So, yeah, that just about says everything that you need to know about the characters in the movie. The second problem this movie shares in common with all of the other modern horror films is the use of lazy, unnecessary jump scares. However, the twenty minutes or so are actually really good, but they don’t quite make up for the rest of the movie’s boring, plodding pace. Overall, a couple of good performances, and a decent climax just aren’t enough to save this movie. 

4 / 10 

The 5th Wave

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The 5th Wave is the latest in the long line of young adult books being adapted into a movie and it stars Chloe Grace Moretz as a teenage girl trying to find her younger brother in the middle of an alien invasion. The way the invasion works is they attack in waves. The first wave is a power outage. The second one is tsunamis and earthquakes. The third wave is a virus. The fourth wave is an Invasion of the Body Snatchers-style assimilation. The fifth and final wave is a group of people who the aliens have trained, annihilating what’s left of the human race. First things first, let me get into what I liked about the movie. The acting, for the most part, is pretty solid, better than most young adult adaptations. Chloe Grace Moretz, in particular is really good, managing to do her best with the material she’s given, especially because she has the daunting task of carrying the movie on her shoulders. Actor Liev Schreiber does good with his performance despite the fact that the character serves no other purpose than to spew out exposition. On the opposite end of the spectrum is the guy she meets in the woods about halfway through the movie. Actor Alex Roe delivers his awkward dialogue fumbling through a very stilted performance, and has the charm and charisma of a cardboard box. The plot is interesting enough, but isn’t executed particularly well, mostly because this movie is poorly written. The pacing is a bit off. The movie’s opening is really strong, but then the movie really slows down for awhile afterwards, while building a boring, forced, cliched “romance” involving a talented and charismatic actress and some guy with no demonstrable talent. Despite this movie having some glaring problems, I actually did end up enjoying it as a guilty pleasure. 

6 / 10 

The Big Short

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A movie about the housing market crash between 2005 and 2008 could have easily been a bore, but co-writer and director Adam McKay (yes, the man who did the Anchorman movies) managed to look at the situation in a different way, injecting a little humor in the situation, and dumbing it down just enough for those people who can easily lost in the shuffle, and, along with co-writer Charles Randolph make the dialogue interesting enough, and get actors like Brad Pitt, Christian Bale, Steve Carrell, and Ryan Gosling who can make the dialogue work, that the movie as a whole is also able to work. There are hints of dramatic moments that I think work really well, especially for Steve Carrell and Christian Bale. There are also a couple cameos in the movie that I think work better than they really should. Another thing I want to compliment is the soundtrack. It may seem like such a small thing, but the way songs like Sweet Child O Mine by Guns N’ Roses, Feel Good, Inc. by Gorillaz, and Master of Puppets by Metallica are interjected into the movie feel natural. On the more negative side of things, The Big Short is 130 minutes long, and there are several places where the movie looked like it was going to end, but didn’t and just kind of kept going. Even though I think a good ten or fifteen minutes could’ve been cut out of the movie, I still think it was pretty good, and I would recommend watching it at least once. 

9 / 10      

The Revenant

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The Revenant follows fur trader Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) in the early 1800s. It tells the story of Glass’s search for revenge after he is mauled by a bear and later left for dead and has his son murdered in front of him, helpless to do anything, by fellow fur trader Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy). The film overall, is excellent. DiCaprio and Hardy are both fantastic in their performances. The cinematography is absolutely gorgeous, and only natural lighting was used for the film. The violence is brutal, and I love the final fight between Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy. The fight between these two is brutal and bloody, and they are both going for the kill without it ever reaching an unrealistic extreme. The scene with the bear was realistic enough, it actually reached a point where it was kind of hard to watch. Take note, this is coming from a guy who can easily sit through the likes of Saw, Seven, and Dredd and I would hardly flinch. Alejandro Inarritu made a pretty solid flick with 2014’s Birdman, and here, he does it again. Almost everything in the movie works. In terms of flaws, I really only have one. One of the subplots in the movie didn’t feel as though it was all that important in the grand scheme of things, at least for me. This is a great movie, and I do recommend seeing it should you ever get the chance. 

9 / 10  

Top 50 Favorite TV Shows (30 - 21)

#30: Beetlejuice: Beetlejuice is a little dark, and a little twisted. Basically, it follows my sense of humor. It carries some of the horror-comedy elements of the movie it was based on. The one major difference is the changing of the Lydia and Betelgeuse characters into a friendship. I really think this television show was a hidden gem that I recommend checking out. 

    

#29: Futurama: Of the two shows that Matt Groening has created, while The Simpsons is the more iconic of the two, I personally think Futurama is a little bit funnier. The humor is darker and a little more adult. Each of the characters is very distinct in their traits. My personal favorites are Bender, the Professor, and Zoidberg. Good news everyone, this is a funny show. 

   

#28: Malcolm in the Middle: I have to admit, it's kind of interesting watching Bryan Cranston in Malcolm in the Middle after associating him mostly with his work things like Breaking Bad, Drive, and Godzilla. In this show, he shows he's pretty damn funny as the eccentric, goofy family patriarch. But, I do also think the entire show is funny, and I like that it offers the perspective of the middle child, and the great comedic opportunities that can arise from that .
    

#27: That 70s Show: The reason I have That 70s Show a little higher than Malcolm in the Middle is because I'm more familiar with it. The characters stand out for me. Are they generally simple? Yes, but that's where I think these particular characters succeed. The actors all generally work off each other well, and actually do feel like they are friends. Yes, the show lost some steam later on. To be fair, almost all shows do that when they go on long enough, but that doesn't detract too much for me. 

  

#26: Monk: Have I said that I like mysteries? I like mysteries. Monk is one of those shows that puts the rare comedic spin on the mystery / procedural genre. The show follows Adrian Monk, a private detective with OCD, who provides most of the show's comedy, all the while suffering a tragedy.
  

#25: The Blacklist: The Blacklist follows career criminal Raymond Reddington, who willingly walks into the FBI, and turns himself in with the promise of giving them the names and identities off a list he has compiled of the most dangerous criminals the FBI's never heard of. The only catch is, the only person he'll talk to is a rookie profiler. From there, secrets are exposed, and questions surface. 
  

#24: NCIS: The mystery aspect aside, what I love about NCIS is the characters. This team acts as something of a surrogate dysfunctional family, with the actors genuinely brining this to life with what I feel is pretty solid chemistry. 

#23: Robot Chicken: Robot Chicken comes from the slightly demented mind of the hilarious Seth Green. The Adult Swim staple has grown such a following because the humor and parodies are so bizarre, they're hilarious. Two favorites that stick out to me are one where the gang from Scooby-Doo go to Camp Crystal Lake and get massacred by Jason Voorhees, and one where the group from Saved by the Bell are put into a situation from a Saw movie. 
     

#22: Goosebumps: Goosebumps is on the list as my de facto guilty pleasure show. It's nostalgic for me, and I still have fun with it, even if I can go back to it, and realize the effects and acting really don't hold up. I think everybody's got that one show that they love, even if they can acknowledge that it's not the best, and Goosebumps is mine. 
  

#21: Supernatural: I still love Supernatural, even if I do think it's starting to waver in quality. The early episodes feel sort of like The X-Files, where our two protagonists travel around in '67 Chevy Impala, hunting things that go bump in the night. It can be scary. It can be funny. It can be dramatic.

Batman: Bad Blood

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I don’t normally review the direct-to-video DC Animated movies. However, I am always willing to give credit where credit’s due. Most of the time, there is a lot of craft that goes into these stories and the animation. They generally feel to me as though they are worthy of theatrical releases, despite rarely receiving them. See Batman: Under the Red Hood and Batman: The Dark Knight Returns as examples. As I’ve already said, a lot of time and effort tends to go into the animation for these movies, and this movie is no exception. The animation is dark, harsh, and beautiful all at the same time. I have to admit, the story is pretty solid overall, too. After a battle, Bruce Wayne aka Batman goes missing and is presumed dead. In his absence, Dick Grayson takes up the Batman mantle, and the mysterious Batwoman arrives on the scene. What ensues is something of an action-adventure mystery that forces heroes old and new to step up and take on new challenges. The voice cast is pretty damn solid, too. Jason O’Mara is no Kevin Conroy but he certainly steps up to the challenge and fits as Batman. Newcomers Yvonne Strahovski (Chuck) as Batwoman  and the great Ernie Hudson as Lucius Fox should also be commended. As far as issues I have with the movie go, I do wish the character of Damian Wayne was more likable. There wasn’t a lot noticeable growth from Son of Batman to this movie. The character still acts like a little punk you just want to smack half the time. Overall, I do think this was a good movie, in spite of a couple problems.

8 / 10    

From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)

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From Dusk Till Dawn is one of those movies that I'm ashamed to admit it really took me too long before I saw it. The movie is directed by Robert Rodriguez and written by Quentin Tarantino. Within the first five minutes of the movie, I was listening to the dialogue and asking myself "Did Tarantino write this?" because it sounded like his dialogue. The characters of Seth and Richie Gecko are just the most despicable people imaginable, but the movie is so well-written, and George Clooney and Quentin Tarantino are just charming enough that they make them likable and relatable to a degree. The family that they take hostage are interesting enough, too. Harvey Keitel, especially, is fantastic as a former preacher who has lost his faith, and has to get it back as the film progresses. The movie feels like two different movies spliced together into one. In my opinion, it works here better than it does in most movies. Of the two halves, my personal favorite is the badass action horror movie that makes up the second half. In terms of flaws, they are very few and minor. I think they could've tried to make the Richie Gecko character more likable early on, as opposed to really waiting for the second half of the movie, at least in my opinion. Watching this movie, I can see why this is a cult classic, and I had an absolute blast.

9 / 10 

Guilty Pleasure Songs

Here I am, putting a giant target on back, and humiliating myself a little bit

"Who Let the Dog's Out" by Baha Men

"How You Remind Me" by Nickelback 

"Blue (Da Ba Dee)" by Eiffel 65  

"Everybody (Backstreet's Back)" by The Backstreet Boys

"Ice Ice Baby" by Vanilla Ice

"Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astley 

"U Can't Touch This" by MC Hammer 

"Baby Got Back" by Sir Mix a Lot

Some of My Favorite Alan Rickman Characters (and Performances)

Alexander Dane / Dr. Lazarus: "Galaxy Quest"

 

The Sheriff of Nottingham: "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves" 

Severus Snape: "Harry Potter" 

Hans Gruber: "Die Hard" 

Sadly, I wasn't able to find any clips of the clips of Hans Gruber I wanted to use, but that does not diminish my opinions on Hans Gruber as a villain and a character.  

Favorite Songs: Space Oddity by David Bowie

Top 50 Favorite TV Shows (40 - 31)

#40: Star Trek: The Next Generation: TNG is one of those shows that I haven't seen a whole lot of, but I do enjoy what I have seen. I've probably seen more of Next Generation than the original Star Trek. The reason I'm saying that is because I believe the characters in both shows are equally iconic. Besides all of this, Picard in Next Generation is probably my favorite of the Enterprise captains. 

#39: Sleepy Hollow: The story Sleepy Hollow is that Ichabod Crane was a soldier in the Revolutionary war, fighting on the side of the colonies. His witch wife cast a spell on him so that he would wake up should the Headless Horseman ever resurface, which he does in modern times. Mix in some biblical references to the apocalypse, and you've got a pretty solid fantasy-horror series that I think is worth checking out. 

     

#38: Star Wars: The Clone Wars: I won't lie. I am a lifelong Star Wars fan, and this 21st century CGI television series has just about anything Star Wars related I could ask for, solid lightsaber battles, a decently strong Padme, and an Anakin Skywalker that was stuck in perpetual whine mode. The Anakin Skywalker in this series actually felt like the character Ben Kenobi described in A New Hope. Jar-Jar's (admittedly limited) involvement in the series is the reason the show is as low as it is. 

  

#37: How I Met Your Mother: Let me start by admitting that this show would easily be a lot higher if it weren't for the fact that the main character was Ted Mosby, mostly because the supporting characters around are either less douchy, more interesting, or both. Ted aside, this show feels like the closest thing we've gotten to a 21st century version of Friends. 

  

#36: Family Guy: The Griffins may easily be one of my favorite dysfunctional TV families. Almost every member of the family offers a unique characteristic. You get the baby hell-bent on killing his mother and ruling the world (Stewie), the idiot teenage son (Chris), the sarcastic alcoholic talking dog (Brian), the daughter with low self-esteem who's the butt of every joke (Meg), and of course, the retarded patriarch of the family (Peter). 
     

#35: Veronica Mars: Another mystery series, Veronica Mars centers on a teenage private investigator trying to solve her best friend's murder. Season three may not be as good as the first two seasons, but the mysteries in seasons one and two are still really damn good. The creators of the show will have episode-long mini-mysteries while the protagonist finds clues and pieces them together to solve the season-long arc mystery. 
   

#34: The Big Bang Theory: To me, The Big Bang Theory appeals so easily because I understand a lot of the nerdy references. This is a group of friends who spend their time playing games in Sheldon and Leonard's apartment, or at the comic book store. Even though, for the most part, they are all highly intelligent, you see their emotional journeys. You don't often see them actually working at their jobs, so much as their conservations in the workplace cafeteria. I honestly love every member of the core cast, because in a lot of ways, I think they're relatable.

#33: Lost: I am a fan of J.J. Abrams, and while Lost certainly had its ups and downs, let's not forget, this show started out with an interesting puzzle that we were begging to have solved. Even when quality started to drop in later seasons, we were still invested enough to see what was going to happen, and whether or not all our questions were going to be answered. 
  

#32: Heroes: Speaking of shows that had their ups and downs in terms of quality, I honestly enjoyed the hell out of Heroes. The characters were pretty unique, for the most part. They almost all felt like they had layers to them, like they were actual people on top of their powers. My personal favorite was Sylar. Sylar is a character who is pretty much drunk on his power. He's a violent psychopath without any sort of remorse for his actions, and is easily the show's most tragic character. 
  

#31: The Walking Dead: I won't lie, I have waned on the show a bit in recent years. I do love most of what I've seen. Does this change my opinions on characters like Shane or Lori? Hell No! As far as I'm concerned, these two are still the most insufferable characters on the show. Thankfully most of the cast who's still alive are pretty solid, and the violence is unnerving.

Labyrinth (1986)

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It occurs to me that due to the recent loss of a very talented icon, the time has come for me to talk about Labyrinth. From what I can remember, the way I was first introduced to the late, great David Bowie wasn't through his music. It was through this movie. Make no mistake, I did find some of his music later (I personally love the song Space Oddity). To this day, I feel that Labyrinth is still a wonder in practical special effects. The puppet work done by Jim Henson and Jim Henson Studios is just incredible. The designs on the creatures in the fantasy world are bizarre and memorable. The same could easily be said of the look of said fantasy world. The production design is incredible, as is the makeup and the costume design. The one flaw I honestly have with the movie is the main character played by Jennifer Connelly (who I'll admit I'm not the biggest fan of as an actress). It's not so much that I think she's a bad character as it is that she's just kind of bland, and, in my opinion, Connelly plays her kind of bland. Connelly and her character seems to just blend into the background for me when I compare her to everything else in the movie absolutely loved, especially David Bowie. I think this movie is a great example of the saying "a movie's only as strong as it's villain." This is a very good movie that I feel is amplified by Bowie's charisma and strong screen presence, making for a fantastic performance as the villainous Goblin King. If you've yet to see this classic, I absolutely believe that it's worth a watch.

9 / 10