Great Music #6

Good afternoon, everyone. Once again I just wanted to share a song I’ve been listening to a little bit lately. And this song I am kind of doing both because I enjoy sharing stuff I like with you and because tomorrow it is December. Where did all the time go? So therefore we will mellow down a bit and just with a slow and relaxing tune. So for this time we are sharing the slow and beautiful song “Pale Blue Eyes” by Velvet Underground. So please just put the song on, relax and let yourself float away into the slow and soft melody.
Enjoy.

Movie Review: Black Hawk Down (2001)

*Ron Perlman voice activated*. War… war never changes.

Ladies and gentlemen, we got a… “Black Hawk Down”.

In 1993, a band of American troopers were sent in Mogadishu, Somalia to try to take down a local warlord who is the cause of a civil war. However when one of their Black Hawk choppers crash in the city they have to fight for survival against essentially everyone in the city… or at least a lot of heavily-armed Somalis. And while the story doesn’t have a lot of cultural empathy, it’s still one hell of a ride. What we have here is a really intense war story and how it affects different people in this situation. And it was all very riveting. There is rarely a calm moment in this movie, so when there finally is a bit of calm you never really take it for granted. But I have to say that it was really interesting, intriguing and pretty well handled.

The characters in this movie are nothing to write home about. They are all bland and never really develop at any time. And I know that you might be sitting there like “Come on, they’re in a war, there is no time for character development”. Three words: “Saving Private Ryan”, a war movie that is just as intense but takes the time to develop it’s characters and keep them interesting. The only reason you care for the characters in this movie is because the movie makes you root for them but introducing them in the beginning and making sure you don’t completely hate them. The only one I actually still really cared about was Josh Hartnett’s characters, but that’s really only because he gets the most space out of everyone. That and his performance is pretty great. That is something positive I can say: while the characters are bland and such, the acting is still fucking phenomenal, great work by everyone in the movie.

The score for the movie was composed by the ever so masterful Hans Zimmer. It is tense, emotional, big and badass. I would really say that it perfectly fit a war movie of this size and scope while also working very well musically overall. I also like the good mix of licensed tracks in the movie because they all worked really well in my opinion.

“Black Hawk Down” was directed by Ridley Scott who I am a huge fan of and once again, he delivered. First off, the movie is masterfully shot and directed and never really has any of that terrible shaky-cam bullshit. And the action scenes are very well handled too. They are both masterfully crafted and plentiful, so anyone in need of realistic war-action, look no further. I will just say that at one point there was so much intensity going on that I thought I was gonna get a heart attack from this damn movie. Thankfully the movie felt like quieting down for a bit around that time so I could catch my breath.

This movie was well received. On Rotten Tomatoes it has a 76% positive rating and a “Fresh” ceritifcation. On Metacritic it has a score of 74/100. Roger Ebert gave it 4/4 stars. And on imdb.com it has a score of 7,7/10. The movie also won 2 Oscars in the categories of Best film editing and Best sound. It was also nominated for an additional 2 Oscars in the categories of Best director and Best cinematography. 

“Black Hawk Down” is a really intense war movie with an engaging plot, bland & uninteresting characters, great acting, great music,  great directing and excellent action. Time for my final score. AAAAAAHHHHH. My final score for “Black Hawk Down” is a 9,38/10. I would say that it’s worth buying.

My review of “Black Hawk Down” is now completed.

Only the dead have seen the end of war. 

The problems of “Black Friday”

Hello guys, it’s me again. I am here right now to talk to you about something that I’ve been thinking about for a short while. That thing (if you did not read the title) is Black Friday. For those of you who somehow don’t know, Black Friday is the one day every year that occurs on the friday after thanksgiving where stores have some of the biggest sales ever… and people go fucking nuts over it. And I am here to air some of my thoughts on the matter and why it is a bit of a problematic matter. So here we go!

First off, have you seen some of the lines outside of stores on Black Friday? Seriously, Jesus tapdancing Christ they are enormous. I’m pretty sure there have been a lot of times when they’ve gone on for at least one or two blocks. Those types of lines tend to be clear signs of some weird kind of obsession.

But when the doors open, that’s when shit’s gettin’ real crazy. People storm in with no regard to the other people or the employees around. It’s like their lives depend on it… which is not the case. Everything turns into a big fucking mess of people, cheap wares, sweat, loud noises and pain. So while your life doesn’t depend on you getting in before everyone else to get that 60 inch, curved, 4k television… your life does depend on you staying the hell away.

That’s right, if you stay away from it all you might survive. There have been a good amount of injuries and even a few deaths around Black Friday. I’ll link a site that shows the death/injury count from Black Friday since 2006. And even then I think that there might’ve been more injuries than it says. http://blackfridaydeathcount.com/

A lot of people use Black Friday as a way to buy christmas presents at a pretty early time. And I have to admit, that is a pretty good cause but since most people are only driven bytheir greed for cheap prices, the christmas present plans usually go to hell because you see a lot of cheap crap that you don’t need. Sure, some people actually go to get something specific or at least a specific type of object. Maybe they saw some cheap waffle iron when they checked the internet and then thought “Well… I do need a new waffle iron” and that is fine, that’s a plan. Or you could be like John Flickster (AKA “The Flick Pick”) who goes looking for good deals on movies. Not specific movies, only movies in general. Where am I trying to go with this? People buy anything because it’s cheap and when they simply see something and want it because of a damn fine price, I have a hard time condoning that since they’re driven by greed. If you have more of a plan and try to be careful, then I might understand it and I can even support that. Don’t become one of the greedy psychos, stay normal and planning.

Then we have probably one of the biggest problems with this entire thing: the fact that more and more parts of the world are trying to integrate Black Friday into their respective societies. And while I can see the pretty clever idea behind it, it will most likely just get fucked like in the U.S. and people will get injured or even killed in relation to the entire damn thing. I mean, I recently started noticing how it’s becoming more and more popular here in Sweden and from that I can only gather how terribly it will end up if it goes up in popularity as much as it does. I am honestly scared of what might happen if Black Friday becomes as big as it’s looking like it might become.

Consumerism is something that’s taken over a little bit much in our world if you ask me. Yes, things are nice and buying stuff is sometimes fun… but it’s really becoming a bigger problem as it goes on. This is what I appreciate about “Fight Club” and “They Live”, those movies understand how much consumerism is consuming us and our entire lifestyles. Those movies have helped me understand it even better than I already did. Yes, they kind of make it all a bit bigger than it might seem, but at the same time the movies have a big fucking point when it comes to it all. Don’t let it all consume you, try to resist.

Look, to some of you I might sounds like a rambling idiot, but I felt like I just had to get my thoughts out. If you made it this far, thanks for reading. If you don’t agree with me, that’s fine, Mr. Company man.
Have a good one.

Series Review: Flashforward (2009 – 2010)

What would happen if we saw our own future? Would we try to change it or would we embrace it even more? I honestly would panic and wonder what the images all meant and what tiny factors in my life could change/keep it. This is something interesting that I’ve been thinking about a lot in my life. Maybe you have as well… who knows?

Ladies and gentlemen, prepare to get a… “Flashforward”.

“On October 6th, the world blacked out for 2 minutes and 17 seconds. The whole world saw the future”. That is the phrase uttered at the beginning of basically every episode. If you didn’t catch what it meant, the plot is that on october 6th 2009, every person in the world blacked out and got a vision of their future. When everyone wakes up, they have no idea what the hell is going on and what happened. So the FBI sets up a special taskforce to find out what happened, why it happened, how it happened and if it might happen again. At the forefront of this is seasoned FBI agent Mark Benford (Joseph Fiennes) and his partner Demetri Noh (John Cho). And from this we get a really cool concept… but is it only good on paper? No, it’s actually great in execution as well. This show is very addicting in the way that it makes you want to know who/what is behind this terrible event and if it’s able to stop him/her/it for good. And thanks to constant suspense, interesting revelations and genuinely good twists it really entertains and shows itself as a really good story. What is sad about it though is that the show ended after 1 season and I feel like that is a shame since there was so much potential for even more interesting plotlines and situations. But I can at least say that what we got was pretty damn good.

What I love about the characters in the show is that we get so many different types of them. First up we have Mark Benford, the seasoned FBI agent who is both determined to find out everything about this whole blackout thing while at the same time not losing his family. And Joseph Fiennes was pretty damn great in the role. John Cho was great as Benford’s younger yet still skilled partner who has his problems. And I would say that all characters are great in the show since I can’t sit here and talk about them all because this is a pretty damn big ensemble cast. But all characters are interesting/great and all actors do a really great job.

The score for the show was composed by Ramin Djawadi who you might know from shows like “Prison Break” and “Game of Thrones”, or from movies such as “Pacific Rim”. And like in those things, it’s great. This show doesn’t rely that much on being as grandiose as some of those scores, but it still holds up really well. A lot of it is based in ambient sounds, but there are of course some orchestral tracks for some of the bigger scenes and it is all great. It all fits the show terrifically. And the licensed tracks they use for a good amount of the show work really well too.

This show looks terrific. I mean, it is really well directed and the camera work is great. Sure, some of the CGI at times don’t look that great, but overall I wouldn’t complain too much about it since it’s not distractingly bad. I do however like the action scenes in the show. Not because they’re huge and extravagant (because they’re not), but because they handled perfectly. When they happen you do notice them, but they never feel like going full Michael Bay which is something I really appreciate. And I do have to say that there are some genuinely suspenseful moments/scenes. One of them (without spoiling it) is a part of episode 17 where I seriously sat and curled myself into a ball, slightly squealing because I was like “Come on… please”. Seriously, that level of suspense rarely happens to me. Fun fact: this show is loosely based on the book of the same name by Robert J. Sawyer. I haven’t read the book yet, but I feel right now like I should at some point in the near future. *blacks out*… *Wakes up minutes later*. I just had a flashforward where I saw myself reading it.

This show, despite only getting one season was well received. On Rotten Tomatoes it has an 89% positive rating and a “Fresh” certification. On Metacritic it has a score of 71/100. And on imdb.com it has a score of 7,6/10.

“Flashforward” is one of those shows that was just too shortlived. It had a great story, great characters & acting, great music, great directing and great action & suspense. Time for my final score. *Blacks out*. My final score for “Flashforward” is a 9,89/10. It most definitely gets the “SEAL OF APPROVAL!”.

Review of “Flashforward” is now completed.

Who knew William Shakespeare was such a badass?

 

 

The “Captain America: Civil War” trailer is officially here

How are you doing today guys? I just came here to share the latest big trailer that just dropped. Yes, I rarely touch upon trailers for movies, television or games, but this time I felt that somethign that I really wanted to talk about dropped. As the title of the post suggests, this is the recently (last night) released trailer for the highly anticipated “Captain America: Civil War”. So here we go!

I first off wanted to say that I was a huge fan of “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” and was therefore incredibly happy to see that the Russo brothers who directed that movie would be returning for this one because “The Winter Soldier” was an awesome movie. It was dark, it was badass and it was intense and it looks like this  new one might be very intense as well. I would put it like this: the last “Cap” movie I felt was kind of like a mix of “Metal Gear Solid”, “The Rock” and of course “Captain America” which really sounds like the best combination ever.

So what is the plot of the movie? Well it is basically a retelling of the classic “Civil War” comic, only without the rest of the Marvel universe. That’s right, since the rights of the characters are split up between several movie studios, you will not get to see characters like Wolverine or the Fantastic Four. But the basic plot of the “Civil War” is that the government have gotten sick of superpowered beings (and Iron Man) running around in a very uncontrolled manner and doing their thing, too destructive and such. So they put up a regulation that prevent them from doing that. Of  course, Steve Rogerrs (Captain America) is not very happy about that, so he stands against it with a bunch of other characters. But on the other end of the spectrum we have Tony Stark (Iron Man) who is completely for this, being in favor of the regulations. So this of course ceates a bit of a conflict and starts a bit of a… civil war. Now since we don’t have the entire Marvel universe to have fun with, the movie will focus more on the Avengers splitting into teams, fighting eachother with the newest additions of Black Panther and (apparently) Spider-Man (Sidenote: Spidey did play a huge part in the comic) to the MCU. But even though there are limitations on which characters will be in the movie, we still seem to have a good amount that will show up and join in on the fight. Even general Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross (William Hurt) and his awesome mustache will make a return, being the one giving Cap the news of the regulation (as shown in the trailer).

I can at least say that based on the cast and trailer that I am pretty hyped about this movie. Hell, I’d even dare say that I think it will be pretty fucking awesome. I’ll leave a link to the trailer so you can check it out for yourselves and then maybe tell me what you thought about it.
Enjoy!

 

Movie Review: Bone Tomahawk (2015)

Here’s a good question for you to think about: what’s the most peculiar mix of genres you have ever experienced in a movie? And what movie was that? I am asking because the movie I am reviewing today has a weird (to say the least) blend of genres. And I guess that’s one of the reasons I wanted to check it out.

Ladies and gentlemen… “Bone Tomahawk”.

This movie follows a very unlikely group of gunslingers; a sheriff (Kurt Russell), an old assistant deputy (Richard Jenkins), a crippled cowboy (Patrick Wilson) and a well-dressed gentleman (Matthew Fox) as they go out into the wild west to rescue a bunch of people who have been kidnapped by cave-dwelling, inbred, cannibalistic savages… yeah, you figure out how they came up with that. But do you see now what I meant by peculiar mix of genres? The movie decided to try to combine western with horror. And how did it turn out? Actually, it was quite good. The story is told in a very slow moving and suspenseful way which I honestly think worked to the movie’s advantage. Like I said, the movie moves a bit slower than most western so if you don’t have a good amount of patience, you might not enjoy it… but I did. Also, the suspense is really good in this movie.

The characters in this movie all feel very realistic and fleshed out thanks to some good writing and some damn fine performances. Kurt Russell gives a terrific performance in this movie as the sheriff who has sworn to go out and save the kidnapped people. I would even dare say that he gave one of the best performances of his career. Patrick Wilson plays like I said earlier, a crippled cowboy who is coming along because one of the people who got kidnapped was his wife. And Wilson was great in his role. Matthew Fox was a very well-dressed and well-educated man in this movie, but he was also a douchebag… and he did a great job. And Richard Jenkins as the elderly “assistant deputy” was pretty damn great in the movie too. Everybody was really good in the movie. What’s sad though is that both Jennifer Carpenter and Timothy Olyphant were rumored to have important roles in this movie… how awesome wouldn’t that have been?

The score for the movie was provided by Jeff Herriott and S. Craig Zahler (Sidenote: The director of the movie). And it’s pretty great. It’s slow-building, beautiful and tense, in other words perfect for the movie. It’s not huge and extravagant, but it never needed to be.

Seeing as this is a western and me not being able to change, I guess I have to talk about the shooty-bang-bang bits in it’s own separate segment… here we go. The shootouts are fine in the movie. There’s never really any conflict in the movie that requires two or more people to shoot at eachother. But when Kurt Russell or any of the other guys have to shoot at someone or something, it is pretty satisfying.

As previously stated, the movie was directed by S. Craig Zahler and as a little fun fact, this is his directorial debut. And does he make an impressive debut? Yeah, he does. This movie is very well directed and everything looks terrific. Sure, it’s not perfectly directed, but since this is a debut I guess I can kind of look past it.

This movie has been pretty well received even though it hasn’t been seen by too many people. On Rotten Tomatoes it has an 89% positive rating (100% if you go by “Top Critics” only) and a “Fresh” certification. On Metacritic it has a score of 71/100. And on imdb.com it has a score of 7,1/10.

“Bone Tomahawk” is an impressive directorial debut from S. Craig Zahler featuring a really good plot, great acting, great music, good shootouts and great directing. Time for my final score. *Cough*. My final score for “Bone Tomahawk” is a 9,83/10. That means it gets the “SEAL OF APPROVAL!”.

“Bone Tomahawk” is now reviewed.

Remember the question I asked at the beginning of this? Please leave an answer in the comments.

Series Review: Jessica Jones – Season 1 (2015)

With Netflix releasing new shows from Marvel every now and then, I feel like I will lose parts of my week/weekend to those clever bastards. So I guess it’s time to review their second collaboration which came out this friday and got finished by me saturday evening… help me.

Ladies and gentlemen, I’d like you to meet… “Jessica Jones”.

So this show follows former super-heroine, current P.I. Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter). She’s been struck with PTSD after something that happened to her in the past, which is the reason why she stopped doing the whole superhero thing and became an alcoholic P.I. But everything is not as easy as it may seem since a man named Kilgrave (David Tennant) who did her wrong in the past resurfaces. Jessica also meets Luke Cage (Mike Colter) and they begin a bit of a romance. So Jessica’s got quite a bit on her plate, having to deal with life as a P.I. and finding/stopping Kilgrave. And is the plot presented well? God damn motherfucking hell yeah it is! It is all presented in a very noir way that not only has style, but also works in a very dramatic and actually engaging way.

The characters in this show are about as broken as a vase that’s been dropped from a twenty story building… and they are all the more interesting for it. As previously stated, Jessica is an alcoholic P.I. with PTSD… if that doesn’t sound interesting, then I dodn’t know what does. What makes it interesting is that it makes her a pretty unpredictable character who never really catches a break. And Krysten Ritter does a fantastic job as her. Mike Colter who plays Luke Cage in the show is also great. You really sympathize with him and you wish you could be his friend… mainly because you want a buff guy with indestructible skin on your side. And I gotta talk about David Tennant as Kilgrave because it is David Tennant as the show’s main antagonist. Holy hell, he is great. He is both a charming and threatening villain for the show and he perfectly suits the shows. But seriously, David Tennant does a great job with his performance and I am so happy to se him in such a great role because I really like him as an actor. And I honestly think every other actor in the show were great as well.

The score for the show was composed by Sean Callery who apparently also did the score for shows like “24” and “Homeland”, none of which I have seen. But I won’t let that cloud my judgement and say my basic thoughts on the score for the show. So how did his score hold up? Pretty damn well I would say. It’s cool and great, that’s all I’m gonna say.

This show was brought to us by Melissa Rosenberg who served as a writer, for, the… “Twilight” movies… it seems like we are in great fucking hands (sarcasm overload). But to be serious, while those movies are poorly written, she also wrote for this show and it is actually very well-written so I’ll let her go for now. But what she didn’t do for the show is direct, and maybe that is for the better. What I am trying to say is that the show is very well directed and looks fantastic. It perfectly matches the tone and style of “Daredevil” while still feeling like it’s own thing. And when there is action in the show, it’s pretty great.

I know the show just recently came out, so maybe not that many have seen it yet but I will still see how it’s been received so far. On Rotten Tomatoes it has a 91% positive rating and a “Fresh” certification. On Metacritic it has a score of 81/100. And on imdb.com it has a score of 9,0/10 and is ranked #62 on the “Top 250 TV” list.

“Jessica Jones” is another welcome entry into the Marvel/Netflix catalogue. The show has a great plot, great characters & acting, great music, great writing and great directing. Time for my final score. *Smashes wall*. My final score for “Jessica Jones” is a 9,87/10. It definitely gets the “SEAL OF APPROVAL!”.

My review of “Jessica Jones” is now completed.

*Insert clever outro here*. 

 

100 Followers

How’s it going guys? I am here today to make the announcement that I finally reached 100 followers on the blog. Okay, to be fair it did happen on friday, but out of respect for what happened in France I decided to postpone the announcement a little bit and I have since then gotten two more followers (so now it’s 102 people). Want proof? Look!

Sure, it’s a screenshot from my phone, but I think it’s good enough evidence.

First off I wanted to thank everyone who decided to follow this dumbass blog of mine. I never thought a smalltown guy from northern Europe like me could really do this well in the blogging community. Seriously… thank you all.

Secondly, I feel like a celebratory thing is in order… I do however not know what one could do. So I would like to get some feedback form you guys what I could do as a sort of celebration. And don’t be shy with your suggestions, anything’s allowed… it’s just that I maybe won’t do your specific suggestion. But feel free to suggest anything you want.

But once again, thank you all for your support and I hope you all have a great day. Big applause to you.

Movie Review: Slow West (2015)

I don’t think there’s a point for me to even do some kind of intro when I review a western, because you guys already know that I am a western fanboy. But in this case I still feel like I should do one to mention how fun it is to see that there are still westerns being released. Sure we have gotten some real stinkers in recent years like “The Lone Ranger” and “Jonah Hex” (I feel sick just mentioning those pieces of shit). But I do still have hope that a western might be good/might entertain me. So let’s see if this one is any good.

Ladies and gents… “Slow West”.

So in this movie we follow young, Scottish man Jay Cavendish (Kodi Smit-McPhee) who have traveled to America to find his beloved girl named Rose (Caren Pistorius). Of course he doesn’t have the easiest time doing this on his own, but luckily he runs into an outlaw named Silas (Michael Fassbender) who is willing to help Jay find Rose. And from that we get a very unique western with a very well told and entertaining plot. The plot touches a lot on the themes of love, right & wrong and a lot of other things that I didn’t expect from it which is something that makes me appreciate a lot more. I also like how the plot has a slight sense of dark humor to give it a very fun style/mood. In conclusion, I liked the plot a whole lot.

The characters in this movie all evolve pretty well and are consistently entertaining. Kodi Smit-McPhee gives a terrific performance as this young, inexperienced yet determined man. Michael Fassbender is terrific as he always is, playing a rough  and badass outlaw who still has a little bit of a conscience. Caren Pistorius who pops up now and again throughout the movie in flashbacks and such is great as well. And I have to touch on Ben Mendelsohn as an outlaw named Payne who appears in this movie… he’s fucking great. That’s it, I have nothing else to say about that.

The score for the movie was composed by Jed Kurzel and I think he did a great job with it. I would say that it is very “Wes Anderson-ish” in style. If you have seen some of Wes Anderson’s movies you know what I’m talking about. Sort of quirky and whimsical but still done in a way where it could be used in a serious way. Does that makes senese? No? Well, I still thought it was great and fit the movie very well.

Since this is a western I have to do this thing where I touch on the shooty-bang-bang parts of the movie. And I do think they are great. Sure, they are kind of few and far between, but this is also a pretty short movie, so I’d say that it’s just proportined to the running time. And like I said, when the shootouts happen, they are pretty damn great. SImple, but effective.

This movie was the directorial debut of John Maclean and I think that he did a fantastic job directing the movie. The shots are steady and it is gorgeously shot. Of ocurse I then have to give some cred to cinematographer Robbie Ryan because the cinematography in this movie looks fantastic. And I like how they used actual environments when they filmed and not jsut some generic green screen soundstage. A lot of cred should be given to the crew of this movie.

This movie has been pretty well received by people and critics. On Rotten Tomatoes it has a 92% positive rating and a “fresh” certification. On Metacritic it has a score of 73/100. And on imdb.com it has a score of 7,0/10.

“Slow West” is a very traditional western that still does a lot of unique things with it’s story while also having interesting & entertaining characters, great music, great shootouts and fantastic directing. Time for my final score. *Bang Bang*. My final score for “Slow West” is a 9,87/10. It definitely gets the “SEAL OF APPROVAL!”.

My review of “Slow West” is now completed.

In one scene he goes from Michael Fassbender into Michael Fassbendrunk.

Movie Review: Southpaw (2015)

It’s the eye of the tiger
It’s the thrill of the fight
Risin’ up to the challenge
Of our rival
And the last known survivor
Stalks his prey in the night
And he’s watching us all with the
Eye of the tiger

Ladies and gentlemen… “Southpaw”.

Billy Hope (Jake Gyllenhaal) is boxer, and a damn good one at that. I mean the guy is the junior middleweight world champion. Well, he is that until something happens. Something that makes him lose everything. So now he has to find a way to work his as back up in life, and for that he takes help/training from Tick Wills (Forest Whitaker). And I have to say that rarely have the plot of a movie depressed me as much as “Southpaw”. Without spoiling anything, let me just say that Billy’s life goes from fine, to bad, to shit, to lowest low. And with his life falling down, so goes your emotional dominoes. That’s right, the plot made me feel like shit and I think that is a bit of a plus. I even have to admit that there were a few points where I almost teared up a bit. Sure, the story is cliché in a lot of ways, but the movie uses those clichés to it’s advantage and that is a good reason for me to like it.

I think it goes without saying that Jake Gyllenhaal is fucking phenomenal in the movie as boxer Billy Hope. Te guy has proven himself time and time again that he is one of the best actors working today and this is jsut another example of his talents. He commits to the role both physically and mentally and is perfect in the role. Forest Whitaker gives one of, if not the best performance of his in recent years. Rahcel McAdams is also really good as Gyllenhaal’s wife. 50 Cent is also in this movie, basically playing Jake Gyllenhaal’s manager and he is actually realld good in the role. In the movie we also have relative newcomer Oona Laurence playing Gyllenhaal’s daughter and I would say she gives a damn fine performance. I rarely like child performances, but she was really good in the movie. Everybody did a great job in the movie.

The score for the movie was provided by the late (and great) James Horner. It is emotional, it is a little thought-provoking and it is pretty damn good. And the use of all the licensed rap songs is perfect. Sure, if you’re not a fan of rap music then you might not enjoy them, but I liked the songs and I thought they fit perfectly.

This movie was directed by Antoine Fuqua and you notice that he was very passionate about this project. You can see how much effort he put down to make sure this movie was as well directed as possible. The overall direction is great, but where it excels is in the boxing scenes which are intense, fierce and brutal. I especially kind of love the first-person shots they sometimes do where you see the actor throw punches at the camera and you see it weave away and dodge, those shots were really cool. Here is a little fun fact for you: This movie was intended as a follow-up to “8 Mile”, this movie was even set to star Eminem. But since there were some scheduling conflicts, Eminem had to drop out and the part went to Gyllenhaal, which may or may not have been for the better.

This movie has gotten some mixed reception. On Rotten Tomatoes it has a 59% positive rating. On Metacritic it has a score of 57/100. And on imdb.com it has a score of 7,5/10.

“Southpaw” is a movie that features a pretty cliché story that actually uses the clichés to it’s advantage while also having great emotion, great acting, great music and great directing. Time for my final score. AAAAAAAHHHHHH! My final score for “Southpaw” is a 9,84/10. It gets the “SEAL OF APPOVAL!”.

Review of “Southpaw” is now completed.

Did you see how much Gyllenhaal beefed up for this? Jesus Christ.