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"Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly" Not the Greatest Album of all Time

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      In terms of how useful, relevant or necessary this review is, I can safely say it's not to all three of those questions. Obviously, as someone who tries to stay informed culturally, I know who Kendrick Lamar is, I listen to some of his songs, but to say that I am a fan of his, or even equipped to properly review an album of his would be a ridiculous claim to make. Even still, I do like some of the songs off of this album, and of course it is regarded as one of the greatest albums of all time, so I'm inclined to give it a listen at my friend Sweaty's behest. So without further ado, my track-by-track review. To Pimp a Butterfly - Kendrick Lamar Wesley's Theory - 75/100 I will be hated if I say that I liked the intro of this song the best out of this entire song, and I won't because it feels disrespectful to the rest of the song, which I actually enjoy a decent amount. A lot of it is definitely the instrumentals by Thundercat but I think the chorus to this song i...
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"The Wire Season 4" Might Be the Best Wire Season

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      Alright, I'll admit it. I took a break from watching season four of The Wire. But frankly, now that I'm done it, I'm starting to question why I would ever make that decision. Look, my complaint of the past couple of seasons is that this show immediately dived headfirst into stretching itself out, trying to keep up with loose threads of past seasons. Though, I think that this season they made the right decision. The kids work, I think this might be the most emotionally impactful season of the show. You just want to make it work out for at least some of the characters, and I don't know if they knew it was leading up to the final season, but I think it's shaping out to be pretty good still. Let's talk about it.     Immediately, the most noticeable change viewers will make is that there is a large McNulty size gaping hole in this season. Outside of a couple cameos it's laughable Dominic West even gets his name to touch this season, he made his peace, he th...
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"Only Murders in the Building Season 5" Just Sad

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      Really? This is the season? I have to say Only Murders   in the Building  season five has been nothing short of a disappointment. I mean seriously. It forgets everything that made the show good, and mainly just meanders around hoping that by showing off new characters it'll be enough of a diversion from the fact that they don't even take their own premise seriously. I mean first of all, they drop the whole podcasting bit because they decide to quickly sign contracts, and then decide to never discuss the fact that their whole livelihood was taken away until the very end when they all suddenly become podcast fans again. Then, the whole mafia/mob thing is only ever discussed for like TWO WHOLE EPISODES. The worst part is, to top it all off, the big reveal about how the murdered was pulled off sounds too convenient, easy, and stupid. It's not clever or ingenious in any real way, it's just bad. Let's talk about it.     What was the point of this seaso...
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"Muse - Absolution" A Tale of Two Halves

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      I come into this review with a fairly fresh pair of ears. By the time I was old enough to care about rock music Muse was already fairly washed, releasing albums like Simulation Theory , but luckily I never cared about them so it didn't matter to me. I did recently listen to Black Holes and Revelations  though, which I thought was fine but didn't really understand why it was rated so high outside of a few stellar tracks, mainly Starlight . Even still, I'm determined to figure out why people love this band so much, I like rock music, why shouldn't I try and see why this band was ever so revered in the first place. So, when my friend CJ recommended this album, all I was told is that it basically sounds like Radiohead. I don't know if that works for or against this album because I don't really listen to Radiohead either, but without further ado, my track-by-track review. Absolution - Muse Intro - N/A It's just your average intro. Apocalypse Please - 80/100...
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"The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom"

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      I did it, after spending basically all of October, and nearly 200 hours playing the game, I am satisfied with my Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom playthrough. Basically the only thing I didn't finish were some Korok seeds, the compendium, and some fabrics/schematics that ultimately didn't matter. Yet, I can't help but be reminded that it took me multiple attempts to actually get me into this game. It starts off pretty slow in the sky islands, and I really had to set aside this month to get back into things. I use the term "get back into" on purpose because this game very much feels iterative of Breath of the Wild  for better or for worse, but it's not necessarily a bad thing, it's just that there's this very clear push and pull between.     I mean can you hardly blame the developers? Open world games take forever to make, I'm looking at you Bethesda, but also BOTW also came out on the Wii U, and as of the writing of this review the Switc...
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"Baby Driver" A Solid Crowd Pleaser

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      Apparently this is my friend's GF's favourite movie, which frankly I was surprised when I heard that sentence. I mean I've watched this film before watching it again today. It was pretty solid, but I don't know if I could hardly classify it as even close to my favourite movie. And my rewatch mostly solidified that for me. To me, this movie could best be classified as a crowd pleaser full of sweet tunes and actions scenes to satisfy just about anyone, and that's okay. I mean I won't go into how problematic the cast of this movie supposedly is because the only one I really knew was Kevin Spacey, but even still this movie was pretty solid. Let's talk about it.     Probably the best part of this film, and what you'll notice about this film is the editing and pacing. You have to give props where props is due and Edgar Wright deserves all of it. You can tell he has a very clear vision on how he wants all of the scenes to play out, and the music and the a...
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"The Wire Season 3" We're Back

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      Alright, I'll admit it. I didn't see any of this coming. I really thought Stringer Bell was a character that was going to make it all the way until the end. To be honest, I really felt like he'd be saved until the end. He really seemed like a smart character, until he wasn't. It's a real shame really, and a stark contrast from how his character was in season one where it seemed like he could outsmart anyone, only to realize he was a shark out of water, and there are always greater powers to be than him when it came to trying to go on the straight and narrow. I must admit, all of his conniving made him feel a little out of his element, and I think a split between him and Avon was bound to happen. Either way, The Wire season three goes back to the streets of Baltimore, with some alright results when they focus on the political system within the city. Let's talk about it.     While the Hamsterdam was pretty novel, and made sense other than the legalized drug ...
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"Sinners" A Good Film (That Tries to be More)

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      Well, I have to admit. I had heard good things about this film, but I didn't realize it would be this good. Maybe it's because I was skeptical with having an actor play two characters at once. Maybe I was just concerned I wouldn't enjoy this sort of film since it is described as horror. But damn once this film hits about the halfway point it really kicks in and leaves you with a pretty satisfying film altogether. I mean I wouldn't call it perfect, I do think this film gets a little messy, playing it fast and loose by the end, but it knows how to keep itself together just enough to make it satisfying. Let's talk about it.     Sometimes, movies are just about the experience, and I'd argue that this film understands that, and makes sure to make it a priority. Do I think it's hyper realistic to life in the 1930's? No. Is the scene where they randomly start talking about the power of music and show different generations pretty jarring? For sure. But thi...
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"Twilight" Terrible

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      You know some things you make fun of as a kid because as a 10-year-old boy you don't really know any better and you just think that it sounds really stupid. And you know, eventually as you mature that opinion slowly fades away, and you even try and go into things with an open mind, hoping to shed that narrow-mindedness and immaturity, thinking that you've grown as a person and simply saw things differently. Sadly, when it comes to Twilight  10-year-old me was right. This movie sucks. I mean deep down a part of me kind of had an inkling of an idea it was going to be bad, I watched this with my sister begrudgingly, but it was worse than mediocre, it was just plain bad. The worst part is? I'm kind of tempted to watch the rest just to see how much worse it gets?     I will state for the record that I do have some idea of what happens in Twilight  the series, or at least eventually, but apparently all of that information only matters/is relevant after...
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"Crazy, Stupid, Love" Accurate Title

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      Well, I safely say for sure that this movie certainly lives up to it's title. It's a bit crazy, in the sense that it's audacious enough to try this unorthodox plot. The plot twist I would say is unexpected and warranted enough that I'd call it crazy. And yes it has a lot of love in it, but the movie also feel's so stupid. Like not just that there's a cringy scene that makes you as a viewer groan kind of stupid, but like this movie tries to intertwine three different love plots and one of them is so legitimately stupid and weird that frankly it threatens to tank the entire score for the rest of this film. Let's talk about it.     There's just no way to slice around it, this movie is messy. The first hour is fine, if a little confusing and perhaps not as interesting as you'd hope it to be. I think I can safely say the most fun I had in the first hour or so of this movie was just watching Ryan Gosling fuck around and basically do his best sigma ma...
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