Breaking Bad Season 5 Review

Note: This post does contain spoilers from the first half of season five.

It's sad isn't it? You never really know what to do afterwards, you put so many hours into watching a show and all of a sudden it ends. But this isn't just any show, this is Breaking Bad. One of greatest television shows of all time, it's like we're losing a piece of TV history. Premiering on AMC back in 2008 to rave reviews the show instantly gained a very strong fan base. While it gained much attention through these reviews as well as the dozens of awards it was nominated for, most early viewers tuned in due to word of mouth. Eventually the show made its way to Netfilx which only increased its viewership. One thing I've noticed about Breaking Bad that we see with a very small number of shows would be that it's actually gotten better as the series has gone on. Let us compare, another show ending this year is Dexter. The first four seasons of Dexter were fantastic, but like most shows the quality declined more and more. But Breaking Bad has gotten better and better every season, and without a doubt this final season has been the best. This last season was split into two parts, and the fact that the first half of the season was shown over a year ago I'm assuming that you've seen the first half. These last episodes picked up right where the first half of the season left off. After making close to 80 million dollars, Walter White (AKA Heisenberg) has decided to hang it up; he's retired and will focus on his family. His partner Jesse is going through a personal crisis and is close to a complete mental break down. Walter knows this so he gives Jesse a couple million and tells him to move on with his life. To keep the people he was doing business with happy he left them a viable operation to continue making quality product. During a family lunch with his sister's in law family, her husband Hank discovers a piece of evidence in Walter's house which links him to Heisenberg; and at that moment everything makes sense. Furious over being fooled for so long he decides to go after Walter and will do anything to take him down; and from there Walter's world comes falling apart. Breaking Bad is one of, if not the, best shows to ever air on television. For five continues seasons the creators have delivered a show that has been nothing short of incredible. The writing, directing, and acting have always been top notch from the first episode to the series finale. Even some of the best shows on TV have a bad episode here and there, but I can't actually think of an episode of Breaking Bad that wasn't up to par. The third to last episode in the show might be one of the single greatest episodes of any show I've ever seen. I didn't start watching Breaking Bad until the second season, originally I wasn't even interested but my friend wouldn't shut up about it so I gave in. After watching the first season I actually thanked him for suggesting it to me. I could go on forever about how great this show is but I think you get the picture. If you haven't watched Breaking Bad I really can't suggest it enough, the biggest complaint I've heard from people who don't really watch the show would be that it's too intense and serious; if you're one of those people that's ridiculous. If you're missing out on a drama because it's serious you should be smacked upside the head, not every show has to be like The Big Bang Theory or How I Met Your Mother. This is a drama and it's very serious. If you haven't seen Breaking Bad, go watch it; it's really that simple. This is one of the greatest shows ever, and personally I am sad to see it go.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Premiere Review

I hope the guy over at Disney who first pitched the idea to buy Marvel got one f*cking big raise and an executive bathroom for even considering that as a possibility, because Disney has made so much money off them it's ridiculous. There have been seven Marvel movies that have made a combined 5 billion dollars, not to mention revenue from toys, games, memorabilia, and now a TV show. Disney is like Apple and Google; they are slowly taking over the world. Agents of SHIELD is a new show that just premiered on ABC, it revolves around the secret government agency called SHIELD that deals with cases involving super humans. The series was created primarily by Joss Whedon who is known as the director of the Avengers, Serenity, Much Ado About Nothing, the creator of Firefly, Angel, Dollhouse, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and worked as a writer on most of the Marvel movies, Toy Story, and Cabin In the Woods. Joss Whedon is pretty much the movie and TV equivalent of Steve Jobs, anything he touches turns to gold and is worshiped as a God by many. So while at first I did question the creation of the show believing it was only made because of the success of the Marvel films and not because it was going to be a well made program. My fears were ultimately put to rest when I heard the Whedon himself played a major role in the show, not just being created as the creator but also writing and directing a few episodes. Well the pilot has finally aired and I'll admit It was better than I expected. The events of the show take place after the events of the Avengers movie. SHIELD is working harder than ever containing the fallout from the attack on New York. Alien tech left over from the attack has been picked up by shady characters from all over the globe and have been selling it on the black market. Some scientist are even trying to reverse engine the tech as well as the super soldier serum used on Captain America in an attempt of making their own super humans. On top of all that a group of hackers are also mixed up in all of this and have been messing with SHIELD; their accusing them of hiding the truth from the American public. So back from the dead, Agent Coulson has picked up his position and will lead a new team in the hopes of keeping the world safe. I really enjoyed this show, plain and simple. This really isn't just a play off the success of movies, the really did put a lot of effort into this. What impressed me most was that the production value looked a lot higher than I thought it would; it looks like they put quite a bit of money behind this project. The acting was OK for the most part; no one's going to win an Emmy but good enough to get by. The writing was alright for the most part, it acts a comedy more than anything else; they did have several legitimately funny lines in there. I did feel that they tried to hard sometimes and the jokes kind of fell flat, but that wasn't the case most of the time. All in all I really liked Agents of SHIELD (the pilot episode anyway), and I'll definitely be watching the series. Is it the best show on TV? Not by a long shot, it's more of a casual show than something like Breaking Bad or Game of Thrones. And it certainly isn't the best show Joss Whedon ever made. It's still a fun, light hearted show that anyone who enjoys the Marvel universe would probably like. 

The Spectacular Now Review

The future is a scary thing, especially for young people. Worrying about college, jobs, and relationships can be a lot for a person. So much for some that it makes them never want to change. My high school had more than a few party kids and while I didn't know many of them personally I actually worried for them. These were people who had their whole lives ahead of them but didn't see what they were doing was hurting them. Some of these kids were smart but instead of fulfilling their potential they wanted to have fun. I'm not a mind reader so I can't say exactly why they were doing what they were doing but if I had to guess it would be because it was easier than working towards their future. The Spectacular know is a coming of age comedy-drama from the writers of (500) Days of Summer. The film follows the story of a high school student named Sutter, an 18 year old party kid and alcoholic. Sutter was in a long term relationship with a girl named Cassidy who had a similar personality to him. After a misunderstanding the two break up, to cope Sutter decides to get plastered. After a night on the town he's woken up on somebody's lawn by an unpopular girl that goes to his high school named Aimee. She explains that she was out on her paper route when she found him sleeping there; hung-over Sutter thanks her and offers to help her out (mostly so he can look for his car which is now missing). The two start talking and while they are polar opposites, Sutter is intrigued and asks if they can have lunch one day. At lunch Sutter asks if she can tutor him in geometry (since he's one F away from flunking). During their session Sutter asks Aimee to a party and there he reveals his feelings for her. Now Sutter sets out to maintain a real relationship with Aimee while at the same time fighting his personal demons and coming to realization that the future is coming whether he wants it or not. This movie surprised, not because it was a very good movie (which it was) but because the director took it in a direction I wasn't expecting. The first half of the movie was pretty comedic, I thought it was another one of those quirky coming of age comedies like "The Way, Way Back" or "Little Miss Sunshine." What surprised me was that the last half of the movie was actually very serious. The movie reminded me of "Silver Linings Playbook," going into it you're expecting a comedy but in reality this is a serious drama with some comedic moments thrown in. There are some seriously emotional and heartbreaking moments in this movie. This is a drama disgusted as a comedy. The movie stars mostly young actors who do a really good job, especially the kid who plays Sutter. Like I said earlier this is a drama more than anything but there are some pretty funny lines in this movie. The Spectacular Now is an excellent film and one of the next great teen movies. It's one of the most emotional and sincere movies I've seen in the last few years. While it doesn't necessarily bring anything new to the genre, it does what we've seen before better than most.

4/5 Stars

Grand Theft Auto V Review

Grand Theft Auto is one of the most critically acclaimed, controversial, best selling, and revolutionary game series of all time. The first game that really drew the public's eye was GTA 3 which put you into the role of a sociopathic criminal and gave you free rein to do whatever you want in an open world game. Steal cars, kill cops, drive on the sidewalk, and so on. It won dozens of game of the year awards, become the best selling game of the year, and was heavily criticized by the media, government officials, parents, and everyone else who gets easily upset. But with GTA 3 the developer Rockstar Games found a formula that worked. Since then Grand Theft Auto has become one of the most popular series the video game industry has ever produced, with multiple games in the series selling over ten million copies; GTA San Andreas was even the highest selling PS2 game. The last major installment in the series was GTA 4 released back in 2008 to overwhelming critical acclaim. Winning several GOTY awards, selling 25 million units since its release, and has even made it on several best of the generation lists. That game was released five years ago and people have been itching for a sequel ever since, well in 2011 Rockstar finally announced that GTA 5 was in the works; and people have certainly shown their enthusiasm. Reportedly GTA 5 was even one of the most pre-ordered games of all time and is expected to sell over 20 million units within a year of its first year. Well it's finally arrived and I can say wholeheartedly the hype was 100% spot on. Unlike the previous GTA games this one revolves around three playable characters instead of one. The first is Michael, a retired criminal who was placed into witness protection several years back. Michael is a middle aged family man who got out of the game and was hoping to retire in the life of luxury, but he's miserable. He has a cheating wife, a jackass son, a promiscuous daughter, and is all around miserable. One day he is approached by a young man named Franklin, our second protagonist, who is looking for some work. Franklin grew up in the "bad" part of town and has been around the gang life for as long as he can remember. He currently works for a shady repo business but has dreams of making it big. So that's why he goes to the once extremely successful Michael. All this commotion ultimately gets the attention of our final character, Trevor. Trevor is a former army pilot who left that line of life and started some less than reputable work, and in the past he had actually done some jobs with Michael. Trevor currently lives out in Blaine County, a trailer park many go to in order to disappear but in his free time he's in on the arms trade. He's paranoid, methed out, and bat sh*t insane. The three protagonists eventually decide to go into business together with one common interest, make lots, and lots of money. I know I've said it twice this year, first with Bioshock Infinite and then with The Last of Us; but Grand Theft Auto 5 is one of the greatest games I've ever played. Rockstar has taken the open world game to the next level, they haven't just made a map they really have made a whole world. The shear amount of stuff you can do is mind boggling, you can do pretty much everything: menial tasks like bike riding and tennis, create your own criminal enterprise, participate in the stock market and buy real estate, they even have in game TV shows. Like every GTA game there are tons of side missions and activities you can do throughout the city, amazingly even the most pointless of these activities are fun and worth your time. The game takes place in the fictional world of Los Santos, a satirical look at sunny California. Huge cities, beautiful mountains forests, and open dessert are yours to explore and use as your own personal play ground. It really does feel like the most complete open world ever put into a game. The game itself can only be described as a technological marvel, it's been announced that GTA 5 is the most expensive game ever with 265 million dollars going into development and marketing. You can really see where that money went; the game has a certain level of polish and shine that I've seen in few other games. The world is beautiful and vibrant while still feeling grimy like what the areas it’s based off actually feel like. It's amazing that Rockstar has the technical prowess to make a game like this work on eight year old hardware and still have it look so good. I wouldn't compare it to something like The Last of Us but it still looks great. Like the last several GTA games the music is great, there are tons of licensed music from old school rock to modern day pop. The game also has an original score which hasn't been used in a GTA game and is one of the best original soundtracks featured in a game this year. One of the most drastic differences over the previous games would be the use of three main characters. Each of them come from different walks of life and have different personalities, with each of them likable in their own ways. Rockstar put a lot more time and effort into character development than in previous installments in the series. Each has their own sh*t they got to go through and don’t just feel like they were put in the game to be controlled. Each feels like an essential part of the story and without them the game would feel like it’s really missing something. You can change between characters using the D-pad pretty quickly and you'll see the camera pan up then over to where the character you're about to control will be. An interesting element that they implemented would be the use of stats on various gameplay elements that you can upgrade to improve in their own right. For example if you’re a bad shot go to the shooting range and practice. Your aim will get better, you can hold onto more ammo, ect. Each of the characters starts off with different stats. Michael starts with higher gun stats while Franklin starts as a much better driver. Each of the characters also has some sort of special ability; Michael can go into bullet time to improve his aim, Franklin can slow down time while driving to make turns more easily, and Trevor can go into a berserker mode where in combat he takes half damage and deals out double. And I'd like to go ahead and say Trevor is one of the greatest characters ever put into a game. One thing that really impressed me about the game would be the story, with GTA 4 I wasn't overly impressed with the narrative. The story seemed more like a formality than anything else. For the most part people just played the game to kill hookers and beat up random people on the street. But of all the improvements the ones that are most obvious would be the driving and the combat. Driving has always been what the series has been known for, but in GTA 4 it was less than satisfactory, it felt like bumper cars; the driving in GTA 5 feels so much better. The driving can be difficult and does rely on a certain level of skill but isn't aggravating like GTA 4 and doesn't hold your hands as much as a game like. Saints Row. Whenever you do fail it's more likely to be your own fault than anything else. I'd also like to say there are a ridiculous number of cars in this game, everything from hunks of junk to the best sports cars money can buy; Rockstar has given us a lot of variety to choose from. The combat has also gone through a major overhaul and has been improved drastically. The combat in GTA 4 was sluggish and hard to handle, the weapons didn't feel like they had any weight and hand to hand combat was more trouble than anything else. GTA 5's combat is much closer to some of Rockstar's other games like Red Dead Redemption and Max Payne 3. The combat is fast, fluid and fun. New to the series are heists, there are several jobs throughout the game that if done properly can earn you millions. The fun part is you can actually plan the heists yourself; choose your team, your approach to pulling it off, and gather the material to get the job done. The main problem people seem to have with these jobs is that there aren't very many. When I first heard about this gameplay mechanic I was actually worried that the game would hold your hand through the entire process; while your options are limited they do let you run the show. Like I said earlier Los Santos is a satirical look at southern California and in some ways acts as a social commentary. It takes a hard look at real life; touching on subjects of corporate greed, celebrity worship, and social media domination. Now I have to talk about the elephant in the room, video game violence; there's reason that GTA is one of the most controversial series ever released. GTA gives you the ability to do just about anything and lets you live out your darkest fantasies. It seems that in the last few years shootings like the Sandy Hook incident and video games are often blamed, most often GTA. The media and ignorant old people think that since you play a violent video game that you must be violent. They completely overlook the fact that after years of research psychologists have found no hard evidence that violent games lead to violent behaviors. These people never just say that the shooters are sick, if at any point in their life they played something like Call of Duty it had to be the video game that drove them to kill innocent people. Anyone who goes along with this train of thought is either an idiot or has no idea what they're talking about. I've been playing violent games for years and I'm a pacifist. Grand Theft Auto 5 is a masterpiece; there really isn't another way to put it. The story, characters, gameplay, and setting are just about perfect; playing GTA 5 makes you feel like you're in a gangster film. The game is available for the PS3 and xbox 360, and I imagine that within the next six months it will be available for PS4, xbox one, and PC. If you have a system that can play this game, you need to get it. This is a game where years from now we'll look back and complain why all games can't be like this. In my opinion this isn't just the best GTA game, it's the best game Rockstar has ever done. Aside from just a few minor glitches I really can't point out a problem with the game, it really is that good. Rockstar has raised the bar for open world games by not just making one of the best games of this console generation, but one of the greatest games of all time. 

5/5 Stars

Prisoners Review

There's a certain type of punishment that I wouldn't inflict on my worst enemy, uncertainty. People don't fear what has happened but what will happen. Not knowing what is going on causes a special kind of pain that eats away at you from the inside. The only thing worse than not knowing what's going to happen to you is not knowing what is going to happen to a loved one. In recent years the most worried I'd ever been for a loved one was about a year ago when my mom said she'd be home from work around five but didn't show up until about ten. I tried calling her but it just kept ringing, which meant it was on. I had no idea what had happened, she could have been dead in a ditch for all I knew. I was worried and she had only been gone for five hours, so I can't even imagine what people go through when someone they care about goes missing. Prisoners takes place in present day middle America where a religious man named Keller and his family go to their neighbors house for Thanksgiving. After dinner Keller's daughter asks if she and the friends little girl can go back to their house. Keller and his wife say it's alright but she needs to take her older brother with them. An hour or so later Keller talks to his son who says that his sister never came to get him. Both families panic not knowing where the girls are, Keller's son says that he saw the girls playing near an old RV earlier; they call the police and report what's happened. A few hours later someone spots the RV, and a nearby detective named Loki heads out and apprehends the driver. Turns out the man in the RV is a mentally challenged 20 something year old named Alex. Loki interrogates him for hours but gets nothing, when he tells Keller the situation and that they have to release Alex he isn't very happy. He claims the police aren't doing enough and takes it upon himself to find the truth. He goes to Alex once he's released and manages to get one sentence out of him. That one sentence is enough to assure Keller that Alex did abduct the girls, and he vows to go to the ends of the earth to find them. This isn't a fun watch, if anything it's downright depressing. I'm not a parent but I'd imagine this is the stuff their nightmares are made of. The strongest aspect of the film would probably the acting; every actor does a really good job. The star of the movie, Hugh Jackman, is going for the Oscar again this year. He gives one of the best performances of his career. While Jackman does a great job, Jake Gyllenhaal steals the show. He has a serious shot at best supporting actor this year. The screenplay is also very good; it throws some seriously tense moments in there. I will say that the movie is long and can be slow at times. Probably my biggest problem with the film would be that they introduce things that seem really out of place but will obviously play a more important part later; it really just takes you out of it. Watching this was very reminiscent of Mystic River. It felt like the director wanted Prisoners to be like Mystic River; the problem is that Prisoners isn't quite as good as Mystic River. Prisoners is a good movie and we'll certainly be seeing this around award time. Strong performances and good writing make this a very strong movie, and while it may be hard to watch the movie is definitely worth your time.

4/5 Stars