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REVIEWS

Stranger Things 98%

Netflix seems to be no stranger to this thing called television. Orange is the new Black, Arrested Development, A Series of Unfortunate Events, and 13 Reasons Why.

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They've also been the home of some stand-up comedy specials as well, such as John Mulaney's The Comeback Kid, Joe Rogan's Triggered, and (My personal favorite) Bo Burnham's Make Happy.

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But when you think Netflix, there's a massive chance that you're thinking of a certain show that-as of recent months-nobody will seem to shut up about.

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And for good reason too, as that certain show is Stranger Things.

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Let's start with the basics.

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Production.

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Orange is the New Black seems to have nailed the environment of being in prison. A Series of Unfortunate Events seems to have nailed this sort of semi-Tim Burton like world with balanced color schemes that are half-the-time saturated and half-the-time pale.

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The bottom line is, Netflix has the money and will to make out-of-the-ordinary environments.

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A great example of this (Other than the ones previously mentioned, of course) is what they've done with Stranger Things.

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This show could've easily taken place during the present day. 

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Just get some clothes from Target and a few random objects to fit with the scenery and just like that, you've already taken away a few thousand dollars from your supposed $220,000 you've spent on making an 8-episode series based in the '80s.

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They decided to go the easy route and pay for a boatload of antiques from about 3 decades ago.

 

Antiques of which, mind you, include: A Pentax MX SLR camera, a Panasonic RX-5090 Boombox, a Western Electric 554 Yellow Wall Phone, a freakin' calculator watch, and a Mitsubishi 22-inch Television.

 

I could only imagine how much that all cost.

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Thus, I believe it's safe to say that the production budget was put to good use.

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I also think it's obvious that other aspects such as visual effects and score are incredibly well done.

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Need I mention the intro?

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As you can probably see, I gave this show a 98%.

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There's a noticeably missing 2%.

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Each missing percent can be split up into 2 nitpicks.

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1- The dialogue spoken by the main three children Mike, Dustin, and Lucas(Not incuding 11)is at times..just...meh.

 

2- Not everyone or everything's perfect, that includes this show.   

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At the end of the day, though, a few nitpicks won't stop me from doing a back-flip once season 2 arrives.

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STATS SHEET

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Seasons: 1 (2016-Present Day)

Created By: The Duffer Brothers

Distribution: Netflix

IMDb Score: 8.9/10

Rotten Tomatoes: 95%

Cast: Winona Ryder as Joyce Byers,

David Harbour as Jim Hopper, Finn Wolfhard as Mike Wheeler, Millie Bobby Brown as Eleven

Kingsman: The Secret Service 84%

Before I watch the sequel that - so far - is getting critically destroyed, I'm going to look back at the film that started all this.

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Kingsman: The Secret Service.

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Playing as a pseudo Bond film, Kingsman takes a dip in the very expansive pool full of spy movies. This original Kingsman was, in my opinion, quite underrated. It may be due to the fact that there were an overabundance of spy movies coming out around the time. Don't believe me?

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The November Man, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, A Most Wanted Man, 3 Days To Kill, Spy, Barely Lethal, Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation, Bridge of Spies, The Man From U.N.C.L.E, Mortdecai.

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Now do you believe me?

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Alright, let's get to the stinkin' review already.

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Visually, the film is incredibly engaging. The effects are put to great use in scenes such as this, and this.

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Need I mention the Church scene(I personally consider this to be one of my absolute favorite scenes in movie history)?

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Within the past year, I've watched both Spectre and GoldenEye. That's a 20 year difference. Spy movies have changed. One thing I've noticed is that they've gotten more and more humorous. Heck, some spy films today seem to be more comedy than an action packed thriller. Now, The Secret Service doesn't go too overboard with the jokes...until the ending gag, of course. People have been whining about the sequel being too humorous with it's zanny cartoon-ish style. I haven't really seen the sequel. But I can say that the first one does a good job at balancing between comedy and action.

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Taron Egerton did quite a good job on his character. And both him and Colin Firth were incredible when it came to the fights. Need I mention the church scene again?

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Now, plot-wise? Things get a bit mediocre.

 

First, there's the overabundance of what if scenarios I have in my head.

 

For example, after the whole flippin' world went on a rampage, why didn't anyone ask "Hey, what in god's name just happened 'round here". You expect me to believe that everything went back to normal after Eggsy turned off the global aggression or whatever that the world wasn't induced into this apocalyptic state of emergency after literally everyone lost their friggin' minds? I would've expected to see conspiracy theorists popping out from every corner after that. But no.

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But that's just a nitpick.

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I think the whole "new world order" scheme Valentine was trying to pull was a bit cliche, don't you think? However, that part kinda makes up for itself. How? They way it was executed.

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When I think of something that a movie would use to wipe out the world( Not including the batch of people working with Valentine) I think of a bomb or something. 

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That aggression manipulative thingy was a great idea in my opinion.

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Their's a scene where all the ones working with Valentine have their heads...exploded. There are a couple problems I have with this.

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For one, I'd like to find and punch the brony that made it so that their heads would explode into rainbow colors.

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And number two, I found the thought of Merlin hacking into the chips in the first place a bit lazy. 

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You could say that scene was getting in my head.

 

I'll go die in a hole now.

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In all, this film is definitely good for those craving the espionage genre right now.

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And if you disliked the sequel, I'd recommend watching this one to heal your wounds.

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STATS SHEET

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Duration: 2h 9m

Written By: Jane Goldman and Matthew Vaughn 

Distribution: 20th Century Fox

IMDb Score: 7.7/10

Rotten Tomatoes: 74%

Cast: Taron Egerton as Eggsy, Colin Firth as Harry Hart, Samuel L. Jackson as Richmond Valentine, Michael Caine as Chester "Arthur" King, and Mark Strong as Merlin.

Me Reviewing Stuff from movies to books to games to bloody noses.

Back To The Future 95%

Christopher Lloyd has been in some successful films such as Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Eight Men Out, and...sure, The Boat Builder.

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Michael J. Fox has been in some mildly successful films and TV programs as well such as Family Ties, Teen Wolf, and...*ahem...Stuart Little.

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Robert Zemmicks (My favorite Screenwriter) has written classics such as Forrest Gump, Cast Away, and The Polar Express.

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But when you think of these three in one room together, you're probably thinking of one of the most beloved films of all time.

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Back to the Future(Did I really need to say that?).

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Personally, my thoughts on the 3 movies of Back to the Future are a little scrambled.

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For me, each one has their own amount of strengths and weaknesses.

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 So, instead of reviewing the entire series all in one go like a psycho, I'll review each film one-by-one. 

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The first film is simply fun to watch and- in my opinion- the best one!

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Some may argue for one of the other two films but I couldn't possibly care less.

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One of the many things I enjoy about the film is that it tends to cut the science BS an everyday science fiction-ish film has and goes straight to the point on how the logistics of time travel would work in this situation

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Sure, there are the times where The Doc might ramble on just a little bit about flux capacitors, but in the end the movie makes it somewhat simple to understand everything.

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Plus, those moments where The Doc does ramble on about sci-fi crap such as gigawatts, have been made up for thanks to the internet

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One thing about the film that haunts me throughout the entire trilogy is that...well...the trilogy didn't really need to exist.

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Think about it, if you were to take out those last 5 or so minutes where The Doc begins his journey to take Marty and Jennifer (Back) to the future and just ended the movie on Marty and Jennifer enjoying one another, I would've been much happier.

 

Hey, it's better than having to watch them go through a 2015 that looked better than the actual 2015(2nd movie, obviously) while also watching Michael J. Fox play cowboy dress-up(Do I really need to explain which movie this one was?).

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In the end, this a true classic and an overall great movie(FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, DON'T YOU ALREADY KNOW THIS?) that completely destroys it's successors.

 

Speaking of those successors, I gotta go strangle the ones who thought the others were better. 

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Adios! 

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STATS SHEET

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Duration: 1h 56m

Written By: Robert Zemicks, Bob Gale 

Distribution: Universal 

IMDb Score: 8.5/10

Rotten Tomatoes: 96%

Cast: Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly, Christopher Lloyd as Dr. Emmett Brown, Lea Thompson as Lorraine Baines, Crispin Glover as George McFly, Thomas F. Wilson as Biff Tannen

Different Era EP 80%

Nowadays, it seems that less and less effort and talent is going into music production.

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"In the hall of the mountain king" was made nearly just over 140 years ago, and I see more stimulation in that ancient piece than any other modern Taylor Swift song.

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While multi-millionaire record labels are getting boatloads of cash by the minute off of cranking out piles of trash like "Look what you made me do".

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Meanwhile, I think I'm starting to have more fun listening to smaller projects.

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Songs by people like Alan Walker are quite decent compared to the stuff we're hearing on the radio.

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Sure, some of those songs by Mr. Walker are at times, quite generic. But his tools for music making are somewhat limiting compared to the expansive consoles that music studios use.

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There are other artists like Alan Walker scattered around the internet on places like Bandcamp and SoundCloud!

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One place I "forgot" to mention in that is Newgrounds. A quite large community with underrated talent.

 

I blame the site's average amount of success over the years on YouTube.

 

Speaking of YouTube, some people that produce high-quality animated content on that site include TomSka, Wonchop, Glasscake (Original animator of the asdfmovie) Eddsworld, and OneyNG.

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Would it surprise you if I said that all of the aforementioned creators started out on the good ole' Newgrounds(OneyNG shouldn't come as a surprise...NG literally stands for Newgrounds).

 

On another note, Newgrounds has been the home of some decent music makers.

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Thus, I decided it would be nice to talk about some of those creators.

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I just found out about an EP released by user MithyxSounds. It's titled "Different Era". It's only packed with 4 songs, but boy is it engaging. Let's start from the very top!

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Song 1 is...well,... "Different Era".

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The first 32 seconds is pure, eerie bliss. It sounds like something out of an '80s sci-fi production(Stranger Things, need I say). It then evolves into a thing of beauty.

 

Despite the fact that it gets quite a bit repetitive, it seems like every song on NG has that trait.

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Song 2 is Neon Utopia.

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People may listen to certain songs because of the lyrics. Such as rap music for instance. And people may listen to certain songs like techno to...well...wake them up, I dunno.

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But I listen to Synth-wave music, and all music, for the rhythm. 

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This is a great example of my love for rhythm.

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There's a reason why this got frontpaged on newgrounds.

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I'd love to see Adult Swim do some sort of animated bumper with this song. It's Miraculous.

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Song number 3 on here is "Jupiter".

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I was about to say that this was my favorite song on the EP. Then I listened to "Neon Utopia" and, well...Jupiter was no longer as special to me as it once was.

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Now, given that, Jupiter is in no way a bad track. 

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The beat, like the others on the EP, is astounding.

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However, this one gets a tad too repetitive. The other songs managed to keep things fresh after every 10 to 15 seconds while this one, after about 2 minutes of listening, it becomes stale.

 

And when it tries to change, it just becomes a bit, well...boring (Didn't think I was gonna say that while talking about this EP)

 

Gee, and to think I was about to say this was my favorite track on the EP.

 

You know what? Screw it. This was actually the least impressive track on the list. Let's skip right to "37" before I explode.

 

That, of course leads to our final track - "37".

 

This one feels a bit manufactured.

 

Almost lazy, to be honest. 

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This song kind of sums up all the problems with the EP: Too repetitive, Cookie-cutter, manufactured sounds. 

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Kinda crappy.

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Don't get me wrong, the beat is somewhat decent, but that seems to be the only plus about this track.

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In all, GREAT START...mediocre finish.

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I'm looking forward to reviewing Milthyx's other 2 EP's on NG in the near future: Nova and Depth.

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STATS SHEET

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Duration: 12m 51s

Created By: MilthyxSounds

Check out the EP here or download it here!

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