5 Minute Disaster...

A little while back a saw a movie that had me convinced that it was going to be the biggest victor of the Oscar's. Unfortunately it wasn't and the movie was left fading in the background and didn't bring home the best sound editing nomination. Although it has claimed a lot of 'best directing' prizes in many other prestigious award ceremonies like Cannes and the CFCA.
This amazingly mellow but yet very subtly action packed film is 'Drive'.

The Plot: The protagonist simply known as 'The Driver' (Ryan Gosling) is a hollywood stunt driver by day ad a getaway driver by night. He always gives a 5 minute window to his clients from the moment he starts driving and the getaway begins. He says "If anything happens in that five minutes...I'm yours, no matter what. I don't sit in while you're running it down, I don't carry a gun...I drive."
But one day a woman living next door called Irene (Carey Mulligan) and his little kid Benicio (Kaden Leos) calls to his attention. He starts a friendly relationship with her and starts getting feelings for her.
After a while Irene's husband 'Standard' (Oscar Isaac) is released from prison and he swears to cut all his ties with the mob and get out of the business. But as it turns out you can't just turn your back on the mafia (who knew?). And they demand standard does another job for them but he refuses.
After days of blackmail and beatings Driver tells him to do this one last job and that he's going to help him do it so that. "I'm not doing this for you, the mob or myself. I'm doing this for your wife and son"
He says. The plan is to heist a pawn shop belonging to one of the rival families.
While 'Standard' is inside the pawn shop a second car with tinted windows pulls up and is immediately noticed by Driver.
After a while 'Standard' comes out of the shop with a bag full of money but as he passes the shop's window he get's gunned down. It's clear to Driver that this was a set-up to kill 'Standard'.
Now he takes on the responsibility to find and stop the men who are behind this and insure Irene and Benicio's safety. But soon enough he realizes that these aren't just small time thugs and this goes way deeper then he initially thought. Now it's not just a struggle for Irene's and her kid's safety but the safety of everyone around him, including himself. And the battle for survival begins as he intends to take down everyone involved before they catch up with him. Time is running short...

The verdict: One of the greatest things about drive is that it has introduced a new way and style of action film making. It's a very slow paced movie. A great example of this is the infamous lift-scene that you can also see in the trailer. The kiss in this shot last more then 3 minutes. There's isn't any movement at all, it's a single camera shot. But with the way they use the light and the music to set the mood and amplify the changes trough these techniques makes the extremely slow parts anything but boring to watch. To acting, directing, writing, cinematography and music are one of the best i've seen in years and in my opinion these couldn't have been done better in any way.
Another thing I really liked (this is just a small detail) is that the driver is a pretty realistic hero which is something that has been missing in action movies over the last couple of years.
The only negative comment I have is that sometimes it seemed like there were small parts of the movie that were cut out for some reason which didn't make the final picture complete.
But asides from that pretty much a perfect execution from the beginning to the end.
A 9,1/10 is a well deserved score.

Funny Fat...

No it's not a spelling mistake. It's not supposed to be funny cat, hat, rat or anything else.
It's funny fat.
so the serie that i chose this time is about fat or to be more precise fat people.
It's Mike & Molly...jeej!! The living proof that obese people aren't always very jolly or really all that funny.

The plot: So as i said before Mike & Molly is about two obese people Mike Biggs (Billy Gardell) and Molly Flynn who meet at an overeaters support group. So they both struggle day in day out to keep this relationship going (which is the first relationship for both of them).
And along with the troubles that obesity brings to their togetherness Molly's family and Mike's best friend and police partner are also constantly trying to sabotage the relationship. And out of this, funny situations present themselfs...or, they're supposed to be funny but they really aren't.

The Verdict: what i found the most shocking about this is that it's a Chuck Lorre production.
The same producer from series like Dharma & Greg, Two And A Half Men and The Big Bang Theory.
All very funny and very successful sitcoms, so why is this one so bad?
My guess is that Lorre got a bit too money hungry and just counted on the fact that his good reputation in the entertainment industry would automatically make his latest production a success as well.
but as it turns out he was wrong.
So it's pretty obvious by now that I'm not planning on giving a good rating for this one.
a 4,8/10 is the best I can do so sorry Chuck (like he gives a ****).

Freaky Styley...

As I mentioned in my previous post, I've decided to start blogging about games and music as well.
I already covered the gaming part so that leaves us with music.
For this new category I'm going to start with my all time favorite band, the red hot chili peppers (RHCP or 'The Peppers').
A rock band that was founded in 1983 by Anthony Kiedis, Hillel Slovak, Michael Balzary (Flea) and Jack Irons.

At first, the peppers struggled a lot along the road to succes.
Their first two albums "Freaky Styley" and "The Uplift Mofo Party Plan" were a total washup and during the making of the second album founding member Hillel Slovak died of a heroïn overdose.
This was a big game changer for the band. Both Flea And Kiedis were also drug addicts but after the loss of their friend they both decided to get clean.
Then the peppers finally got a hit with their next album "Mother's Milk"
But they didn't really hit it big until the album after that called "Blood Suger Sex Magik".
The song under the bridge, which was a tribute to Slovak, was a great success and is still the peppers biggest hit to this day.
After that they never went down again. With hit after hit the peppers became one of the most well known rock bands in the world and now after 29 years they're still going at it with the same attitude and success.
The thing that I personally like the most about the peppers is their lyrics.
When you listen to any which given song that the peppers wrote, the lyrics simply seems like a random string of words put together because they sound good together. But after a couple of times listening to the song you starts understanding those random string of words and it makes perfect sense and the result is an entire story that get's to you both emotionally and musically.
For example here is a verse from the #1 hit 'californication'.

"Pay your surgeon very well
To break the spell of aging
Celebrity skin is this your chin
Or is that war your waging...
Space may be the final frontier
But it's made in a Hollywood basement
Cobain can you hear the spheres
Singing songs off station to station
And Alderon's not far away
It's Californication"

So basicly what the song is describing is the way life in good ol' sunny California and more specifically Hollywood and how it changes and impacts people mostly in a negative way with the drugs, sex and rock 'n roll attitude.

Otherside:

The verdict: The thing about the peppers is that even tough musically they really suck when they play live, their songs still get to you, both the live and the recorded versions.

I'm yet to hear a the red hot chili peppers song that I absolutely don't like and I've heard 'em all so that being said...definitely a 9,4/10!!