Split

Split

M. Night Shyamalan's newest film "Split" stars James McAvoy and Anya Taylor-Joy in a thriller about a man who has Dissociative Identity Disorder that takes three girls captive. The girls have to deal with the different personalities that appear as they try to somehow escape from his prison. Shyamalan is a director many thought was going to go on to become one of the greats among the likes of Steven Spielberg after he directed his much loved film "Sixth Sense". Sadly what actually happened was that his films just seemed to get worse and worse with every new release. One thing that always seemed to hold back his movies was that they all had to have a big "twist" at the end to surprise the viewers. It got to the point where people would watch his movies expecting the twist to come and once the twist came, it just wasn't any good to the point where it even made his films worse. Personally I liked "The Sixth Sense", 'Unbreakable" and "Signs" (even though the twist in Signs was one of the dumbest twists ever). After watching his movie "The Last Airbender", which is one of the worst movies I remember watching in the Theaters, I never watched another one of his films... That is until "Split" of course. So is this another failure by Shyamalan?

The Answer is thankfully NO, not even close to a failure because I really had fun watching this movie. I can't say that I loved this movie, but I do think it's actually a great thriller with a really fantastic performance by James McAvoy. McAvoy who plays the man with the split personalities and does such a good job making each of them feel different. It was so great to see how his facial expressions and posture would change for each character, making each of his split personalities actually feel like completely different people when you watch them. Each personality he played has distinct quirks and attitudes and it was exciting when you got to see a new one introduced to the story. McAvoy was definitely the best part of this whole movie, very enjoyable to watch him work.

Also great in the movie was the protagonist Casey played by Anya Taylor-Joy, who also did a good job at reacting to all of McAvoys different personalities convincingly. Her character is introduced right from the start of the movie as an outcast, and I think she does a good job at playing that role as well as selling her fear of her kidnapper. The other two girls with her Claire and Marcia played by Jessica Luca and Haley Lu Richardson were also fine in the movie, not as memorable as the other actors even as side characters to the story. There are some slower moments in the movie, but none of it feels completely unnecessary and it just builds the two main characters and the story more.

As a thriller this movie did a good job at keeping me in suspense. Wondering what personality was going to come out next, and what kind of person he would be with the new personality. The movie keeps you wondering just what is actually going on and why he is doing what he is doing. James McAvoy's performance really shines and makes this a very fun movie to watch. This feels like a good new start for Shyamalan, and I hope he uses the momentum  from this to keep making exciting and fun movies like this one. It seems like he's turning a new leaf with his last two movies actually being good and he's gaining my trust again.

Overall Grade: B

I recommend giving it a watch, it's a very interesting, ecxiting and fun movie with a memorable performance (so pretty much the exact opposite of After Earth).

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Billboard Top10: January 21 2017

Billboard 1/21/17

So it's 2017 and it's time for new music to take the charts and we get to see what the big songs and trends are going to be this year. Though, it's going to take a while for things to completely change as the charts are still full of songs from last year. Really things haven't changed much since last month, just a couple of things here and there moving around slightly in the top 10, while the rest of the charts are a different story. Focusing on the top 10 though, the biggest and best news is finally... FINALLY Ju Ju On That Beat is off the top 10 with a huge drop from the number 6 spot to the 11th. Losing it's popularity in streaming, itunes and youtube by huge numbers lead to this finally getting kicked off the top 10. Another big surprise coming up right at the number ONE spot...

1. Bad and Boujee by Migos Ft. Lil Uzi Vert (Try spelling that with autocorrect): 

So black Beatles is yet again kicked to the 2 spot thanks to this.... song? I actually sadly like Black Beatles better than this song. This song feels like it last an eternity, it's literally the same thing over and over and over again and it just feels so drawn out. This song needed to be cut down to 2.5 minutes at the most. What the hell is with that Lil Uzi verse? He sounds a little to breathy, it comes across kinda creepy. The most annoying thing though is the echo and sound effects they have to do after every single line in this song. "DOPE!" "GRAHH" "PEWPEWPEW" are just some of the annoying things you hear and it gets old before the first verse is even over. Take away that echo and make the song way shorter and you have a decent song that's at least average.

2. Black Beatles by Rae Sremmurd

Still going pretty strong in streaming, but dropping in sales it still manages to stick around the top of the charts. I finally got around to watching the video though, and it was strange to see a group who doesn't know how to play instruments on stage with... instruments. besides that, I still feel the same way about this song like I did last year. It's better than anything they have done in the past, so at least there's improvement. Still that's not saying much for these guys.

3. Closer by Generic Artist number 387

This song has been up here way too long at this point, and it doesn't seem like it's going anywhere at the moment. The bad male vocals, the weak drop and the dumb lyrics by Chainsmokers who only seem to write songs about how much girls want to sleep with them. I still listen to it from time to time, because even with it's flaws I can admit it's not a terrible pop song, it's okay at best. Hopefully though, people will stop giving this so much attention and move on to something new and better.

4. Starboy by The Weeknd

A couple weeks ago this song actually made it to the top spot for just one week sadly. Around the time of the albums release, which I guess gave the song enough of a boost to get to the top for a week. Still a great song and I haven't really changed my opinion on that. This would be the ideal choice to be on top or at least 24k Magic, but sadly it's gone down again this week thanks to "Closer" and it's down to number 4. 

5. 24k Magic by Bruno Mars

This one has been floating around here since it made it to the Top 10. Honestly, I think with time i've somehow grown to love this song even more. I though by this point the...uhm... magic would have faded away. It's a sad time when a song that's actually fun, catchy, original, and well made doesn't make it to the top 10. Also sad to that another great song "Versace on the Floor" isn't even on the charts anymore only making it to the 98th spot and leaving quickly after. Seems weird to see a Bruno Mars album have only strong single, but of course the album is still fairly new so maybe in time more songs will gain popularity after 24k Magic loses some steam. Before that happens though, just give this one some time on the number one spot please. It deserves it. 

6. Side to Side by Ariana Grande ft. Nicki Minaj

This one pretty much has the same story as "24K Magic" just floating around the middle of the top 10 since it first appeared here. I guess the streaming and radio play must be very strong because in sales it looks to be slipping. Honestly it seems the only thing keeping this one alive is the video since it's still the second most popular video on Youtube music with almost 670,000,000 views. I wonder why the video is so popular? Email me at Captain@Obvious.com if you know the answer.

7. Don't Wanna Know by Adam Levine and 5 other guys. Oh and Kendrick Lamar is here too. Kinda.

I don't think I need to say much about this one. Still a very bad song. Still sad to hear Kendrick Lamar's bad verse. Still wonder what they did to Adam Levine to make him sound like any other singer. 

8. Let Me Love You by Justin Bieber and DJ Slytherin

It's probably a good idea not to listen to "Don't Wanna Know" followed by this song if you are driving, as there is a very good chance you will fall asleep. Look, Justin Bieber dominated 2016 in the charts and it's time for him to go away for a little while now. There was barely a few weeks without him in the top 10 last year and I just need a little break is all. With time this song went from being just an average song that wasn't terrible to being a very boring song I can't really listen to all the way through. I hope the next song has some more energy, I could use a pick-me-up. 

9. Fake Love by NyQuil

Oh. Look who's back on the top 10. Can someone please just show Drake some real love so he can stop whining and going into bad falsetto. 

10. Bad Things by MGK ft. Fastball

Take a chorus from a good 90's song and butcher it. That's what this song did. Using the chorus from 90's band Fastball's song "Out of My Head", a song about someone who admits to the mistakes they have been  by ignoring the obvious signs a person has been giving him while expressing that they "never meant to do bad things to you". This new song by Machine Gun Kelly changes that last line to "I ONLY want to do bad things to you" changing the message of the original song and of course making it more sexual, because that's what you do now-a-days I guess. Machine Gun Kelly himself isn't that great of a rapper and on this song he seems pretty weak. Mostly I just hate how this song takes a song that I actually like and doesn't use it well at all.  So if you haven't heard the original go look it up and check it out. "Out of My Head" by Fastball.

Well that's it for this week. Still carrying over all the bad, and good from last year. With two new songs that both fail to catch my attention more than just one or two listens. Can't wait for the new music to start coming in, i'm excited to see what the year has in store for music. 

Playlist of all songs!

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2017 Movie Preview

Anticipated movies of 2017

Last year was a bit of a letdown in many ways, with lots of big budget movies being pretty disappointing. Though lots of great indie films made up for the bad big budget movies last year. 2017 looks to have even more highly anticipated big movies than last year so far, and i'm hoping they all live up to the hype this time. Here's the big budget blockbuster films that i'm excited for this year. (in no specific order)

Lego Batman Movie 

The Lego Movie was one of the biggest surprises 2014. A movie that really shouldn't have been as good as it was. Now comes the Lego Batman movie, which already looks to be a very funny movie according to the previews. Will Arnett did a really good job the first time around, but of course he was only a side character then. Still, I think a full Lego Batman movie will work really well and if it's anything like Lego Movie's humor, it will be another big hit. Not really sure where else they will take the Lego movie franchise after this, but I suppose Lego Movie 2 would be the most obvious.

John Wick Chapter 2

Speaking of surprises, the first John Wick movie was another big one that I think a lot of people did not see coming. Keanu Reeves revived his action career with the last movie, with lots of great sequences and stunts that were so much fun to watch. I feel like sequels like this always seem to fall short of the original, but I really hope this isn't one of those movies. Keanu Reeves is a great and underrated actor and I think he can keep this from being a failure, as he seems passionate about this. We need more great action movies and 2017 looks to have some good ones starting with this one and XXX with Vin Diesel early on.

Logan

Days of Future Past and X-Men 2 are still two of my favorites, if not my favorite comic book movies out there. It's sad to see Hugh Jackman hang up the claws and sideburns, but judging by the trailers he looks to be going out with a very different Wolverine then we've seen in any of the movies. This has the potential to be my favorite of the year, but at the very least I just hope it's a good send off for Jackman. The first Wolverine solo movie was one of the worst comic book movies made. The second one was a good movie, but not a great one. If that trend continues then this new one should be a great movie, and I desperately hope it's an A+ movie. What an amazing poster.

Alien Covenant

This movie is supposed to connect the Prometheus movie to the rest of the Alien movies. I don't know much about this one yet, but it's being directed by Ridley Scott, who's been up and down with his work recently. I thought Prometheus wasn't a bad movie, but i'm hoping this one gets things back on track. It sort of reminds me of the Terminator franchise that sort of fell apart after the second movie, Alien has a similar story never really being able to match the quality of the second movie "Aliens". Not to forget that there's another Alien movie coming out at an unknown date soon.

Star Wars Episode VIII

Force Awakens was a great start to the new trilogy, introducing some memorable and likable new characters. The most exciting part of this new movie though, is seeing where the story is going to go. Hoping that they take a new road unlike the last movie that used a lot of moments from the first movie "A New Hope" to make the movie feel familiar. How will Luke affect the movie? How will Kylo Ren get revenge or at least become stronger? Will Jar Jar finally make his triumphant return to the series? We will see later this year.

Spider-Man Homecoming

After the perfect introduction to Spider-man in Civil War, we finally get the Spider-Man movie that marvel has been wanting to make. Tom Holland has already shown he's capable of being a very great Peter Parker and Spider-Man, now it's time for Marvel to show us how to make a great Spider-Man movie again. Seeing Peter Parker in high school while juggling his secret super hero life will be an interesting movie to watch. Appearances from Iron Man and other important Spider-Man characters are also said to be a part of the movie. Add Michael Keaton as The Vulture to play the main villain and you have me even more excited. Of course the question everyone can't wait to be answered: What will Stan Lee cameo as this time?

War of the Planet of the Apes

The first two films in this franchise were both fantastic. I've been excited to see how it all goes down when the war between man and ape goes down, and I really hope it's as good if not better than the last two movies. It might be strange to see a movie where it's humans vs apes where the apes are painted are portrayed as the good guys in a sense, so that will be interesting to see. Caesar as a character is very interesting, more so than most of the humans in these movies. The rivalry between him and Woody Harrelson's character will be interesting to watch.

Guardians Vol. 2: How can anyone not be excited to see this... Getting to spend more time with the outcasts we fell in love with in the first movie is a dream come true. I have no doubt this movie is going to be another great one. The question is, where does it fit in with the rest of the Marvel movies, and how does it set up for the future? We shall see soon enough. Oh wait, Nathan Fillion will make an appearance? So will Kurt Russell? Just when you thought it couldn't get any better... IS THAT BABY GROOT?!?!

Blade Runner 2049

Harrison Ford? Ryan Gosling? Sign me up. The first Blade Runner was and still is one of the best and original sci-fi films ever made. With lots of great themes and questions being asked, I wonder how this new movie will tackle new subjects for the current generation. Though I know little about it, I look forward to learning more. I'm excited for the visuals and how they will be in this world 35 years after the original masterpiece. It's also being directed by Dennis Villeneuve, who made some really fantastic movies in "Prisoner", "Arrival" and "Sicario".

Power Rangers

Nah just kidding. The trailers for this movie took away any excitement I might have had towards this movie. It seems like a lot of my childhood favorites like Transformers, Smurfs, Ninja Turtles are being ruined by Hollywood and this looks like it's next victim. It seems that the people making these movies don't understand why we loved them in the first place. Hopefully the trailers aren't reflective of the final product and there's actually a good movie here, but for now I won't hold my breath.


  It's morphing time!!!!

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets 

Always excited to see more big budget sci-fi adventures, especially a more original one (based on books... but still). I'm very excited to jump into this new world and see what original ideas it has to offer in the sci-fi genre. It just looks like a lot of fun, and I hope it isn't another let down...... (Jupiter Ascending *cough*). But I really hope this one turns into a nice franchise with some great sequels. Until I see this first one though, all I can do is hope.

Dunkirk 

Christopher Nolan returns to direct this new World War II movie. With a name like Christopher Nolan behind it, and an actor like Tom Hardy starring in it, it's impossible not to get excited about this. Looking at the trailers, this looks it's to be a beautifully shot film with great effects. Nolan changed the game with some genres like action with Inception and comic book movie with the Dark Knight trilogy. How will he, or will he, affect the war movie?

Baby Driver

I don't know much about this yet (doesn't even have a poster), but it's a new film by my favorite director Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Scott Pilgrim). Supposed to be a more action centered heist movie, so it's exciting to see what Wright will do with this new genre he hasn't done yet.

Kingsman The Golden Circle

The first Kingsman was a very fun original movie. I'm just excited to see what crazy action fun this next movie will get into, and how they will up the stakes from an already insane first movie.

Coco

The next original story by Pixar animation is coming this year. I'm always excited to see a new original story by Pixar, as I think that's when they really shine. This time Pixar taps into the music and takes inspiration from Mexico and Dia De Los Muertos. Even though the idea was done a few years ago with the movie "Book of Life", it's still going to be interesting to see how Pixar tackles it. Also this year will be Cars 3, which already looks a lot better than Cars 2, but that's not saying much. Even though it's a sequel I could care less about, I hope Pixar doesn't feel the same way and still put some passion into it. I'm eager to see more original films by Pixar, starting with Coco later this year.

Mary and the Witch's Flower: 

From one of the directors of great Studio Ghibli movies "When Marnie Was There" and "Arrietty". Though this movie might not be released in the states until later this year, if at all, it's still one I need to watch. Beautiful and highly detailed traditional animated movies are Japan's specialty and Studio Ghibli is the best at it. Even though this one isn't being released by Ghibli, it still looks to have that same quality.

Well those are some of the movies i'm looking forward to at the moment. I'm sure there will be more announced, and of course lots of indie movies to look forward to throughout the year. Hopefully all these movies will be great (even Power Rangers), but we'll see in time.

If all of this doesn't excite you, here's a picture of a cat I found on the internet.

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Top 10 Movies of 2016

Top 10 Movies: 2016

2016 was a strange year for movies. Lots and lots of disappointments this year, but still a lot of good movies out there and even some great surprises. To me, this year was all about the indie movie. While big budget movies and sequels just seemed to disappoint and not bring anything new to the table, indie studios were making more unique movies. Before I get to the Top 10 in my opinion, here are some movies I liked, but didn't quite make it to the Top 10.

Zootopia: Another great animated movies to add to Disney's already huge library of fantastic animation. A great message for kids and adults, with lovable characters.

The Boy and the Beast: An anime movie translated to English this year, a very enjoyable story of a boy who is trained by a beast as they grow a special bond. Very well animated and fun characters you grow to love.

Everybody Wants Some!!: A nice throwback to 80's comedies full of memorable annoying, but lovable characters. Check it out if you love 80's comedies like Caddyshack, Police Academy and Fast Times.

Hunt for the Wilderpeople: A very unique and very funny movie that wasn't really seen by many people around here.

Fantastic Beasts: A good start to the new series of films based on Harry Potter. Lovable characters and a very unique protagonist.

The Lobster: The weirdest movie I saw in 2016, but also the most intriguing. Very interesting concept with lots of very bizarre moments that will make you laugh.

Also there are lots of movies I am going to watch now in 2017 that I missed last year, so it's possible that maybe one of those movies I missed may have been in my Top 10 list.

10.  Star Trek Beyond:

 I was worried about this one at first, with J.J Abrams not directing and instead Justin Lin of Fast and Furious fame taking it on. Still this movie was a lot of fun with great action with the characters I've grown to love over the last two movies. Everyone does a good job together and there's always great chemistry between all the cast. In a summer full of disappointing movies, this one stood out as a really enjoyable fun watch. Also some great little moments to honor the great Leonard Nimoy and the 50th anniversary of Star Trek. I look forward to what else could possible come from this series of movies, hopefully another sequel will be coming because I want more adventures with these characters.

9. Edge of Seventeen

I wasn't expecting to love this movie going into it, but it really took me by surprise. It was a really relatable story with great characters, really funny moments and touching moments. It's great to see a movie like this that can speak to the younger generation in a realistic way that doesn't feel like it was just written by adults to pander to younger audiences. The dialog feels real and the characters feel real enough as well.

8. 10 Cloverfield Lane

The first Cloverfield movie was a good movie, but i'm very glad they got rid of the Found Footage style for this one. Really the only problem with this movie was the fact that it has the name Cloverfield attached to it, since it kind of got rid of the surprise at the end of the movie. Still this movie had great suspense, always kept you wondering what was really going on, and the acting was really good. It will be interesting to see where this franchise will be going next and what kind of movie it will be. Hopefully Mary Elizabeth Winstead will be back, because she was really great in this movie.

7.  Deadpool

After making Deadpool one of the worst things in the X-men movies in Wolverine Origins, we finally get the Deadpool everyone wanted. Thanks to Ryan Reynolds and his hilarious deliveries and the constant 4th wall breaking that works well because of the amazing writing in this movie. Even though the other X-men movie released this year was very disappointing, this one lived up to all the hype, and I think even surpassed any expectation I had going into it. We need more Deadpool, and thankfully because of how good this one was, we will be getting more.

6. Captain America: Civil War

While DC Universe movies seem to be struggling to catch up with all the work marvel has done, Marvel just keeps getting better every year. Everything in this movie just worked so well, from the friendship of Cap and Bucky to the crazy airport fight scene. I was glad that even though it was a movie with a lot of the marvel characters fighting each other it still focuses on Captain America and doesn't put him in second place in his own movie. Also can't forget the great introduction to the new spider-man, which was done perfectly. It doesn't look like Marvel is slowing down anytime soon, and next year looks to be an even bigger year.

5. The Nice Guys 

Another movie that came out of nowhere and caught me by surprise. This year felt a little light of great comedies (especially ones from big studios) and this one came out during the dull period right before summer, so it's weird that it didn't get more attention than it got. This was the best comedy that I saw this year, nothing else made me laugh as much as this movie. Ryan Gosling was so great in this movie, and his expressions along with his physical comedy were on point the whole time. The chemistry between Gosling and Crowe was amazing, and they worked so well together in this movie. Angourie Rice, who played Gosling's daughter in the movie, was also really funny in this movie and gets me more excited about the Spider-man movie next year as she will be a part of it. I really hope to see more of these characters in the future in a sequel.

4. Sing Street

I love this movie. I love the original music in this movie. I love the cast in this movie. I love everything about this movie. There was a lot of talent involved in this movie, from the cast that actually played the instruments and sang to the ones in the back who wrote all the songs. Not only was the music really well done, but all the kids were great at acting too. I loved the relationship between the main character and his brother. It all just worked so well, and made this really charming movie with music that will get stuck in your head (in a good way) for days.

3. Kubo and the Two Strings

Animation will always have a special place in my heart thanks to Disney, Pixar, Studio Ghibli. This year though, it wasn't any of those studios that made my favorite animated film, but instead it was Laika animation. This movie felt like exactly what I needed to see in animation. A more serious movie with really unique animation that looks extremely beautiful. You can see the hard work that went into this movie in every shot, everything is amazingly detailed. The story isn't afraid to do something different in a kids movie by going a little darker in certain areas, but still having a really good message for kids and adults both.

2. La La Land:

 I didn't think it could get better than this movie in 2016, but it was beaten last minute. Still this movie was such a pleasure to watch. From the brilliant soundtrack to the great acting and cinematography. The great use of music in the movie and the homage to old Hollywood classic films worked so well. The great chemistry between Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling and the great performances in singing and dancing were so great to watch. I'm not really big on musicals, but this movie was one of the best I've seen all year, which is why it's all the way up here on the list. Director Damien Chazelle is so great at making these movies centered around music. I eagerly await his next project.

1. Manchester By The Sea 

Just. Wow. This was actually the last movie I saw in the year 2016 and i'd never thought that it would also end of being my favorite of the year. While I was watching it I really didn't want it to end, I was enjoying myself so much watching this movie. It's a very beautiful movie to look at, the cinematography is really well done. The settings of Manchester and Boston are so beautiful to look at in the movie. The acting is so amazing in this movie too, there are some scenes in the movie that just left me feeling speechless. One scene in particular between Casey Affleck and Michelle Williams was one of the most touching scenes I've seen in a really long time. I don't want to spoil a single thing about this, everyone should give this a watch and experience it. It's not the happiest of movies, but it has some really powerful moments. In my opinion, nothing this year in movies affected me like this movie did.

That's my list at the moment. It could always change in time, and I see more movies that I missed. Still I loved all of these movies, and I hope that you can take the time to see them.

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