Boyce Avenue-All We Have Left(CD)

Boyce Avenue started on youtube, back in 2007 they posted a few covers of radio songs done acoustically and before they knew it they had completely blown up. Now four years later they their videos have over 240 million views and thanks to their success with their covers they were able to make their own music and put it up.

When a band does covers for the majority of their career and suddenly switches to originals most of the time it ends in disaster because they aren't good songwriters, this is definitely not the case here. Every song on this album is well written, the guitar parts are beautifully layered and the lyrics are instantly relatable.

Pro's

• 13 great songs and 1 music video for only 7.99 on Itunes, which is a great deal.
• Amazing recording value, they obviously took their time to get all the nuances right.
• Everything is amazingly written and you can tell just by the singers voice that he means every word he sings.

Con's

• Obviously any style of music won't appeal to everyone and some people will find this too emotional/soft.
• Every song is slower and some of them start to sound similar after a while.
• It's hard if not impossible to find a hard copy of the album for those of us who don't like digital albums.

Over all with such a great value at only 7.99 is a steal for this album, definitely worth checking out. 4 out of 5.

Here is one of the stand out songs from the album.

Snuff(Book)

Check out a more detailed description here.

Chuck Palahniuk is best known for Fight Club and Choke. Both huge successes with Fight Club turning into a movie and becoming one of the biggest cult classics of all time. He is one of the most intelligent writers of our time and also one of the most odd. He pays attention to every agonizing detail in every story he tells, and never pulls any punches. Snuff is no different.

Coming in at just around 200 pages, Snuff is a very short read. It follows a porn star by the name of Christie as she tries to set a world record by filming a movie in which she sleeps with 600 men one after another without stop. The book follows the stories of three of these men and the organizer of the event. Chuck doesn't leave out any details and paints a very vivid picture for you which, given the dark and disgusting nature of the majority of this book, could put off some readers. If I told you anymore I would ruin the book for you, so I will go ahead to the Pro/Con section.

Pro's

• Short, fairly easy to read.
• Amazingly detailed descriptions of sounds, smells, ect.
• Great story, great character definition. None of the main characters fall flat.
• No matter how many times you think you know what the twist is at any given moment you will most likely be wrong. Which makes for a great read.
• A lot of dark humor, which is great if you are into that sort of thing.

Con's

• I know I listed it as a Pro but since this is a short book so some readers will have wanted it to be longer.
• Some of the dark, vile things that Chuck writes about and a lot of the dark humor will most definitely scare away and easily offended or weak stomached readers.

Definitely one worth buying and reading more than once. 4 out of 5.

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EDIT: here is the link to amazon if you want to read part of it and/or buy it. Here.

It's Kind of A Funny Story.

Watch the trailer here.

This is a unique movie. It's a love story, but it's also a story of teenage depression, finding yourself, finding peace with the world and the things you can't change. It's really well acted and well written. A young man, Craig, thinking of committing suicide checks himself into a psych ward to see if he can find a quick fix and the movie revolves around him and his interactions with the other people in the hospital.

I personally loved this movie, it showed how even though on the outside it looks like nothing is wrong you can still be torn up inside. Even though it may be because of small stuff, life is different for everyone and different things effect people in odd ways. It's incredibly honest in it's portrayal of the teenage condition and how it feels to watch people around you find things easy while you are just trying to get by.

Pros

• The movie features Zach Gilafinakis, while he may be over saturated as far as comedies go in the last year, but he really stepped out of his box for this one, acting a more serious role. And he does it VERY well.
• The love story is played out honestly and the way real teenage love usually happens. Awkwardly.
• Each of the patients in the hospital had their own personality and they made sure to give them a little depth so that you could relate to everyone in some way.
• The movie uses some artwork a while in and it is beautiful.

Cons

• It's kind of slow
• It has an indie feel so some people are going to cry "hipster movie."
• Some of the humor is dark and won't be well received by everyone.

Over all it was definitely worth a view and I will absolutely see it again. 4 out of 5.

The Parking Lot.

Check out the trailer here.

This kind of an odd movie. This is a documentary about a pay parking lot. It follows all of the people that work their and the owner. On the outside it seems like it would be boring. I was VERY wrong. The movie goes in depth into the workers character and each differnt person personality. It shows how hard working in what you would think is a simple workplace actually is.

Watching this will make you feel for the people who have jobs like these and appreciate how hard they have to work. They show how the richest people try to get out of paying and all the frat idiots with half a brain cell who have it better than anyone thats working there. It just give you a really good perspective and shows that everyone has a story worth telling.

Pro's

• Funny, in depth interviews with workers and the owner.
• Gives a good perspective on the average intelligence of people that have to work crappy jobs.
• It's shot perfectly to bypass the possible pitfall of being too slow or boring.
• Really gives you something to think about rather than just telling you facts.

Cons'

• Even though it overcomes it most of the time, it still feels kind of slow at times
• Some of the workers are odd characters and may be hard to appreciate/relate too
• A lot of people probably won't really get the point of it, and it's definitely not for everyone.

Great documentary, giving it a 4 out of 5.

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Black Swan

Watch the trailer here.

I had no clue what to expect when I saw this movie. After the trailers I figured it would be a by the numbers thriller. I was wrong.

This movie is one of the most dark, artistic, sexual movies I have ever seen. I can barely think of what to say about it, it was simply fantastic. The story follows Nina Tayers(Natalie Portman) as she tries out for a beautiful play called Swan Lake. That's the most I can say without giving anything away. Rest assured you will feel comfortable at the beginning but as the movie picks up speed your mind will be racing to keep up with the amazing web that this story weaves. Now lets get to the comparisons.

Pro's

• Natalie Portman gives one of her best performances and exceeds any expectation anyone would have prior to seeing this
• The editing and cinematography kept you on edge and wanting to know where the characters were going to take you next.
• Mila Kunis(Lily) gives the performance of her life in my opinion, far exceeding any belief I had about her leading up to this movie.
• All of the supporting actors play their part perfectly and helped push the story along.
• This may be the best soundtrack of the year, keeping with the ballet theme everything is in perfect rhythm with an orchestra. the violins sound like they are crying. Simply beautiful.
• Unlike some movies, the climax was worth every moment you spent waiting to find out what happens.

Con's

• While this is obviously just an opinion the movie is drenched is sex and is very graphic, not a good movie to watch with mom or really any close family.
• They don't give much background on the characters except for the main one. This is a minor problem for me because everything revolved around Nina.
• Due to how dark and sexual it is, it will not be for the easily offended or squeamish.

I know I'll catch flack for this but I give it 5 out of 5 stars. I've seen very few movies that even come close to the beauty and finesse of this one. This is definitely one to buy.

*All pictures are property of their respective owners*

The King's Speech

Watch the trailer here.

This movie is the true story behind King George the IVs rise to power, his stuttering problem, and his struggle to get past it so that he could be the inspirational voice that his country needed.

I want to go ahead and say that the real story behind all of this is fantastic and very inspirational. It's all about overcoming obstacles and facing fears. It's also about having friends that help you along the way wether you like it or not. The acting is phenomenal and the three main actors; Colin Firth, Helena Bonham Carter, and Geoffrey Rush really show why they are the top of the talent in hollywood. The real downfall of this film is that, to put it bluntly, it's boring. The movie moves like a slug and every scene feels the same as the last. But I digress, here are the Pro's and Con's

Pro's

• The three main actors show acting chops rarely seen in popular films nowadays. The real stand out was Helena Bonham Carter playing Elizabeth, she get a lot of screen time but she certainly showed that she has skills beyond her typecast of the crazy and dysfunctional characters she's played in movies such as Alice in Wonderland and Fight Club.
• The setting was created perfectly; you were really convinced that this was before WWII.
• The body language between characters such as turning away or a subtle rolling of the eyes was well used to keep the characters human.
• The soundtrack flowed beautifully behind every scene not overpowering or really even very outspoken at all but at the same time it fit what was happened perfectly.

Con's

• The dialog, while well written, was boring and uneventful. It was obvious that they didn't want to dramatize this movie like other "docudramas" have been, but the movie hurt for it.
• The movie was slow, things happened at an agonizing pace and had me tearing my hair out waiting for something exciting to happen that would keep me interested.
• The environment, while being amazingly believable, felt as if they had used the same room for each scene. The more you saw them Geoffrey Rush and Colin Firth speaking in a room together, the more each scene started to blend together.

I understand the acclaim that this movie has gotten and I would be lying if I said that it didn't deserve any of it. But in my personal opinion, the movie could have been faster and didn't have to be 2 hours long. I'm probably going to get a lot of hate for this.

3 stars out of 5

Once again this is my opinion and I would be glad to hear what you guys think. Leave a comment below and let me know.

*All Pictures are the property of their respective owners*

The Social Network

See the trailer here.

Mark Zuckerburg is the youngest billionaire in the world. He is the creator of a website that has connected 500 million people all over the world; even in places without roads have Facebook. He was voted Time Magazine's Person of the Year for 2010 and this is supposedly his story.

Before you watch this movie you have to understand that it was not okay'ed by Mark or Facebook at all and was made using a loophole in the system so that they didn't have to get rights. This movie is an enormous stretching of the truth but is an amazing one with great dialogue.

Directed by one of my favorite directors, David Fincher (most known work his work on Fight Club), and screenplay by Arron Sorkin, this seems to be a winning combination by anyone's standards.

Let's start with the Pro's:

• Amazing dialog that is acted almost flawlessly by Jesse Eisenberg; he really puts across the awkward social interactions that someone with a high IQ finds in normal society.
• Andrew Garfield is great in the first role I've ever seen him in and really uses his facial expressions and body language well to get across how unsettled he is with Jesse's character throughout certain scenes.
• Justin Timberlake plays Sean Parker, Napster's founder. I had very low expectations, but it seems that Justin is a much better actor then I gave him credit for, or maybe he just plays an asshole really well.
• Armie Hammer, in my eyes, is the breakout star as he played both of the twins in the movie and was able to interact with himself in such a way that a few minutes in you really forget that they are both the same actor.
• The visuals during the "hacking" and "programming" scenes really move well with fantastic editing that makes these things look fun and easy (they are anything but). Hell,when he finished the first scene I wanted to buy a netbook and start writing code.
• The music swells and plays in just the right times to emphasize certain points in dialog.

Now for the Con's.

• The story is VERY dramatized, with a bunch of lines and things that no one would EVER say and Mark has said never happened.
• If you know the true story then you know that Mark doesn't care about money and he's had the same girlfriend though this entire process and this puts a huge dent in the movie.
• Other than the girl that plays Erica Albright, most of the other ones have a hell of a lot of overacting problems.
• With the lawsuit proceedings strung in the original story line it gets a little tedious at times trying to remember exactly where you are in the actual story.

Overall this movie was really well done and even though at first I put it off as an attempt to just make money off of Facebook's success, I was very pleasantly surprised. Jesse Eisenberg stepped out of his usual comfort zone and came out as an actor of his own right and not just another Michael Cera clone (same in every movie). This is definitely one you are going to see, if not own.

4 Stars out of 5

*All pictures are the the property of their respective owners.*