My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy Review

Kanye West, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010): 9/10

Kanye is just heads and shoulders above any mainstream pop/rap/hip-hop artist out there. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy was in my opinion really similar in the layout of the tracks to the College Dropout in the sense that there were a number of skits, spoken word poetry, ballads, and was at times really crude.  That’s not meant as a complaint though; College Dropout is one of the best albums I have ever heard.

I sort of wish Kanye West didn't release like half the songs before the album came out because it takes away from the enjoyment of hearing them. I've been listening to Power (which might be the best song on the album) for the last like six months. I'm kind of used to how great the song is so when I hear it on the album its more meh. 

I think Kanye could have cut out a couple songs - 13 is one or two too many in my opinion. My favorite songs in no particular order were: "Gorgeous", "Power",  "So Appalled", "Blame Game", "Runaway", "Who Will Survive in America", and "Lost in the World".  There weren’t any bad songs on the album - I didn't love "Monster" but even that was ok.  "Blame Game" would have been my favorite song if not for the unnecessary Chris Rock skit that was crude and not that funny. The first two/thirds of "Blame Game" is as good as anything Kanye has done and brought back memories of "Family Business" but the last third ruined that. My complaints are really minor though; My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is easily in the top 5 rap albums I have ever heard. The level of creativity that has to go towards making something of this caliber is mind-blowing.  I would argue Kanye surpassed Jay-Z on this album; Jay-Z was pedestrian at best in the two or three songs he was in. There was no creativity or excitement and compared to the energy and creativity of Kanye its not even close. Seriously a line about a dark knight feeling? I probably could have written that with any/all due respect. The greatness of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is even more apparent when you compare it to other albums out by "Radio" artists.

Favorite lines from the album:

• "Sex is on fire, I'm the king of fire. I'm the king of Leona Louis"
• "Too many Urkel's on your team that's why you're winslow"
• "Penitentiary chances, the devil dances and eventually answers to the call of autumn, all of them fallin' for the love of ballin', get caught with 30 rocks, the cop look like Alec Baldwin, inter century anthems based off inner city tantrums"
• "What's a black beetle anyway, a fucking roach"
• "Is hip-hop, just a euphemism for a new religion"
• "Screams from the haters, got a nice ring it. I guess every superhero needs his theme music"
• "They say I was the obamanation of Obama's nation. Well that’s  a pretty bad way to start the conversation"
• "Address me as your highness. High as United, 30,000 feet up and you are not invited"

Winter 2010 Film Reviews II

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 (2010): A-

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt. 1 was in my opinion up there in terms of being the best film of the franchise.  As a fan of the books I couldn't really imagine the film being better - it was exciting and faithful to the novels. 

The Half Blood Prince was just terrible in my opinion; that film cut out most of the storylines with young Tom Riddle and glossed over so many of the things that went down in the book. It was a shame too because The Half Blood Prince was the best book in the series.  Unlike The Half Blood Prince, The Deathly Hallows seemed to follow the book closely (or as close as one could expect).  

The only things I didn't enjoy with the film was the abbreviated first fight scene when the Death Eaters chase Harry out of his house.  They only showed what happened with Harry and in the book that scene is so much longer and more exciting. They also didn't really provide the closure for the Dudley's that the book provided.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt.1 on the whole maintained a level of excitement through the entire film (which is not that easy considering that the first half of the Deathly Hallows is mostly just Harry and company roaming around the forest). The movie was also surprisingly funny and even a little moving with the parts with long time characters getting hurt.  I am really looking forward to the final chapter and if its anything like Part 1 I think I'm going to enjoy it. The second half of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is so much better than the first half in terms of action and excitement so if this movie was this good without anything big going on, how great is the final one going to be? 

Cyrus (2010): B

Cyrus is just one weird movie. Its so unbelievably awkward to watch and is as painful to watch as parts of Borat/Bruno and the worst moments of The Office (like Scott's Tots).  The movie is about a miserable divorced middle aged man (John C. Reilly) who meets a woman at a party and starts a relationship.

The relationship is fraught with problems because of the woman's grown (like 22 year old) son who is manipulative and dependent on his mother. The son, played by Jonah Hill, is just an evil character who really is completely unlikable. Cyrus (the son) just wreaks havoc on the relationship and screws with the character John C. Reilly plays. The movie is kind of funny because of the reactions of Reilly to the crazy shit that Cyrus pulls.

This wasn't a huge issue for me but the movie is somewhat unrealistic in terms of how they present the relationship between the man and Cyrus's mother. How that relationship is set up would never happen and never work but it’s a movie and I get that they have to come up with some device for them to meet and date.  The acting is solid throughout and I thought Jonah Hill (from all of Judd Apatow's movies) was really impressive - he killed as this weird, messed up man/child.