Synopsis: Almost four decades after he drew first blood, Sylvester Stallone is back as one of the greatest action heroes of all time, John Rambo. Now, Rambo must confront his past and unearth his ruthless combat skills to exact revenge in a final mission. A deadly journey of vengeance, RAMBO: LAST BLOOD marks the last chapter of the legendary series.
My thoughts: They certainly tried to go back to it's roots with the flick by trying to insert some storytelling in, especially when compared to the last Rambo flick. However due to that it acted more like a thriller for the first hour before kicking into overdrive for the final 30 minutes. This balancing act failed and so did the points. It had it's good and bad qualities but in the end, Last Blood, is a sad way to end the franchise if it is indeed "Last".
Final verdict: 3.5 Home Alone traps out of 5.
Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil And Vile:
Synopsis: Elizabeth Kloepfer refused for years to acknowledge that her boyfriend was a serial killer. Her partner, Ted Bundy, became famous in the 1980s for committing several heinous crimes against women, despite her disbelief, who watched passively as the murders were unleashed from a very unique perspective.
My thoughts: The cast is fantastic, as is the source material of course. Where this film dropped the ball was it's uneven direction and tonal shifts all over the place. I can understand the tone shifts when dealing with Efron as Bundy since they wanted to convey how he was 2 completely different people however they did it poorly and also decided to shift tones on secondary characters that didn't need it which took away from the watching experience.
Final verdict: 3.5 Ted Bundy tapes out of 5.
Missing Link:
Synopsis: Tired of living a solitary life in the Pacific Northwest, Mr. Link recruits fearless explorer Sir Lionel Frost to guide him on a journey to find his long-lost relatives in the fabled valley of Shangri-La. Along with adventurer Adelina Fortnight, our fearless trio of explorers encounter more than their fair share of peril as they travel to the far reaches of the world to help their new friend. Through it all, the three learn that sometimes you can find a family in the places you least expect.
My thoughts: Laika has been on fire so I was definitely excited for this film, even once I saw the trailer and seemed "meh" towards the film as a whole, it was still Laika and it was still going to be good... But unfortunately it was just fine. There was nothing exciting going on here. It was dull, it was a generic world travelling story. None of the introspective views Laika films usually include but at least we got a good amount of gags to save this from being a complete letdown.
What's up folks? We're back with another Emo Meme Review but this time I'm morphing this into my own Personal Top 10 Opening Bands. This was inspired by the following tweet:
Now I've been to a lot of shows and discovered a lot of bands this way so as I stated I'm doing a top 10 out of it. The rules are as follows: I may have heard of the band but I could never have previously listened to them before the show and I'm ranking the bands by how much I enjoy them, not how much success they've had. So onto the list:
10. Forever Came Calling
My first experience with FCC was technically on Warped Tour while they were working the line. My friend bought a CD but I didn't actually listen to it. The first time seeing them for real was opening up a State Champs/Handguns co-headliner put on by their record label Pure Noise Records and FCC was the main support for the two headliners. They put on a good show but my now fiancee actually got me in to them because she wanted a shirt of them which had Jennifer Lawrence flipping off the camera. Luckily they were giving away a CD with any shirt purchase and I got their last full length "What Matters Most" and fell in love with it which made me pick up their debut Contender as well which has just as many jams.
9. The Artist Life
So this is an interesting one. The Artist Life and The Swellers (who also got strong consideration for this list) were on a co-headlining tour and the St. Catharines stop coincided with my friends band's CD release party so they technically headlined so it counts. The Artist Life put out 2 EP's and a full length, all of which I'd highly recommend. They are unfortunately no longer active but they were the best of the small Canadian bands I discovered at local shows.
8. A Rocket To The Moon
Nick Santino's original band A Rocket To The Moon landed the opening spot on an old Alternative Press tour that had 3OH!3 and The Maine headlining with support from Family Force 5 and Hit The Lights but it was Nick with an acoustic guitar that stood out (not really, HTL killed it!) I went to the merch booth and bought his debut EP and I still listen to it regularly. Their full length On Your Side followed and is still an absolute favourite of mine before they faded off a little bit with their last release before disbanding and Nick started doing solo stuff before going back and doing band work but no longer under the ARTTM moniker.
7. Sugarcult
This is a fun story only because it happened at the first live band concert I've ever been to. It was Green Day's American Idiot tour in 2004 that had my favourite band, New Found Glory opening for them but opening the show was Sugarcult. A band I never heard of before even though they talked about Memory and Bouncing Off The Walls playing on radio I had never heard it but a few weeks later they performed Memory on one of the late night talk shows and I was officially hooked. They're no longer active but hte members are keeping busy writing and producing for other bands but nothing can take away from the excellence of their first full 2 full lengths and even their third was fine.
6. Valencia
Valencia opened up probably the best concert lineup I ever went to, Tourzilla in 2007 with the Audition, All Time Low and Boys Like Girls. I had never seen them and they were good but didn't stand out due to their lack of stage presence. I didn't realize at the time that it was their first tour back after the death of lead singer Shane Henderson's girlfriend. A few months later they released the single from their upcoming album Holiday and it was around the time I was looking for bands to check out on Warped 2008 and I got hooked on it alone with their previous songs and became a fan and consider myself lucky to be able to check them out one last time at Warped 2019 in Atlantic City.
5. The Story So Far
The Story So Far was on the Glamour Kills tour in 2011 with the Wonder Years, Polar Bear Club, Transit and A Loss For Words. Surprisingly they opened the show back then. I hadn't given them a shot but I loved TWY and got into transit a little bit before. PBC and AL4W took up most of my time getting ready for the concert only to discover AL4W weren't playing my date. TSSF moved around a lot more than they did now but I was still underwhelmed by their performance given how heavy their music was but I decided to pick up their debut album anyways and fell in love. I've continued to be a fan until this day of their music it's a shame their live show leaves a lot to be desired however.
4. Knuckle Puck
Unlike some bands on this list I had never even heard of Knuckle Puck as they were still a local band from Chicago when they went out on tour with Man Overboard, Transit and Forever Came Calling. I enjoyed them but I don't have any vivid memories other than lead singer Joe wearing a tie-dye long sleeve... I hated tie-dye then and I still do. A month or two after the show the video for "No Good" got released and popped up on YouTube. I decided to watch it since I remember liking the music and I fell in love and they've been one of my favourite modern pop punk bands ever since.
3. Set Your Goals
Here we have a first and only on this list folks. Set Your Goals I seen twice before I got into them. They opened a spring tour with New Found Glory and Bayside and then in the fall they opened for Paramore and The Starting Line. The following spring I heard a few tracks off "This Will Be The Death Of Us" and I officially liked them. Now it was hard putting them up this high since I seen them twice and left unimpressed though I still to this day don't love "Mutiny!" as much as most do but loved their next 2 albums before going on hiatus. I'm also excited to be able to say I seen them one last time at Warped 2019 to get some closure.
2. Four Year Strong
So I know earlier I said The Artist Life was the best band I discovered at a local gig but technically I first heard Four Year Strong at a local show as an opener for Bayside (I think they were third of five on the bill). I had heard of them and the people that throwdown at their shows, I had never experienced that yet as this was early in Easycore so I was excited to see that but the music also spoke to me. I left the concert and dove into FYS more eventually grabbing Rise Or Die Trying and following all their releases to this day and their live show is still just as strong years later.
1. State Champs
Yes, I saw arguably the biggest modern day pop punk band back before they released their debut full length in December 2012. They opened up for Hit The Lights, an inspiration to them as they played a one off show in Toronto to prep for a full upcoming tour the bands were doing. I remember hearing Remedy for the first time that night and the opening melody stayed ingrained in my mind. A few months later while deciding to start a weekly countdown I discovered they made a music video for a song called Elevated. I heard it once and I was hooked. When The Finer Things came out months later I streamed it a bunch before grabbing a physical copy a few months later and I've been seeing them live and buying up all their music ever since.
Synopsis: Evil resurfaces in Derry as director Andy Muschietti reunites the Losers Club in a return to where it all began with "IT Chapter Two," the conclusion to the highest-grossing horror film of all time. Twenty-seven years after the Losers Club defeated Pennywise, he has returned to terrorize the town of Derry once more. Now adults, the Losers have long since gone their separate ways. However, kids are disappearing again, so Mike, the only one of the group to remain in their hometown, calls the others home. Damaged by the experiences of their past, they must each conquer their deepest fears to destroy Pennywise once and for all...putting them directly in the path of the clown that has become deadlier than ever.
My thoughts: It's not nearly as strong as the first, partly because the scares were minimized to (likely) appeal to the surprising number of smaller children that seen the 1st part and although a lot has been made of the length it did not seem long and was expected with them needing to shoehorn time for the younger cast into part 2.
Final verdict: 4 happy dancing clowns out of 5.
Dora And The Lost City Of Gold:
Synopsis: Having spent most of her life exploring the jungle with her parents, nothing could prepare Dora (Isabela Moner) for her most dangerous adventure ever -- High School. Always the explorer, Dora quickly finds herself leading Boots (her best friend, a monkey), Diego (Jeffrey Wahlberg), a mysterious jungle inhabitant (Eugenio Derbez), and a rag tag group of teens on a live-action adventure to save her parents (Eva Longoria, Michael Peña) and solve the impossible mystery behind a lost city of gold.
My thoughts: I never really watched Dora in my life, I was too old when it came out and although I babysat cousins that watched it I wasn't really paying attention. That being said, this was an excellent movie. They kept out the really weird parts of the cartoon that wouldn't work in a live action film but they were still able to give them nods. A tamed down tomb raider with more laughter and even, dare I say, more adventure? Dora is definitely worth your time.
Final verdict: 4.5 poo songs out of 5.
Men In Black International:
Synopsis: The Men in Black have always protected the Earth from the scum of the universe. In this new adventure, they tackle their biggest, most global threat to date: a mole in the Men in Black organization.
My thoughts: As far as Men In Black movies go, this one didn't have the same heart as the others. They had the opportunity to make a good story with Tessa's characters backstory but they never really did anything for it other than giving her a reason to show up. The humour was definitely the scripts focus and it worked but not sure it was worth the downgrade in other departments. Kumail's voicework was more than enough comedy that they didn't need to lead Hemsworth into "funny" territory (with mixed results at that). In the end International is solid but certainly the weakest in the franchise.
