Last.fm Presents: My Top Artists & Songs of 2014

As many of you already know, I am just as passionate about my music as I am about my movies. To keep track of my music, I use an amazing service called Last.fm

Last.fm uses an app, called the scrobbler, to not only track the artists, songs, and albums you listen to the most, but it also creates your own social media page with your own radio station! If you have a song on your device that is in the last.fm library, when you scrobble it, it gets added to your own radio station. People can then go to your page and listen to the music you listen to! Additionally, they let you know when your artists are playing in your area, when they release new material, and they'll even recommend similar artists you might really like, Last.fm really is a terrific service that is 100% free! You can check out my last.fm page and radio station by clicking the link in the links section.

Todd's Top 30 Songs of 2014:

1) New Medicine - Race To The Bottom

 2) Alice In Chains - Again

 3) The Donnas - Take It Off

 4) Buckcherry - Lit Up

 5) Seether - Fake It

 6) Linkin Park - One Step Closer

 7) Royal Republic - Be My Baby

 8) American Hi-Fi - Flavor of The Week

 9) Alice In Chains - Man In The Box

 10) Everclear - Heroin Girl

 11) Puddle of Mudd - Abrasive

 12) Lifehouse - First Time

 13) New Medicine - Laid

 14)  Limp Bizkit - Nookie

15) Marilyn Manson - The Beautiful People

16) Seether - Gasoline

17) Helmet - Pure

18) Saliva - Survival of The Sickest

19) New Medicine - Resolved To Fight

20) New Medicine - Rich Kids

21) Pearl Jam - Not For You

22) Pearl Jam - Spin The Black Circle

23) Seether - Fine Again

24) Local H - Bound For The Floor

25) Rob Zombie - Dragula

26) Local H - All The Kids Are Right

27) Alice In Chains - We Die Young

28) Rancid - Blast 'Em

29) Seether - Tonight

30) New Medicine - American Wasted 
 

Todd's Top 100 Artists of 2014:

TOP 25: 
1) Local H

 2) The Offspring

3) Buckcherry

4) Seether

5) Green Day

6) Foo Fighters

7) Anti-Flag 

8) Alice In Chains

9) Everclear

10) Papa Roach

11) Danko Jones

12) American Hi-Fi

13) Nickelback

14) Live

15) The Suicide Machines

16) AC/DC

17) Stone Temple Pilots

18) Marilyn Manson

19) Collective Soul

20) Puddle of Mudd

21) New Medicine

22) Shinedown

 23) Red Hot Chili Peppers

24) Silverchair 

 25) Bad Religion

TOP 50: 
26) Royal Republic 27) The Living End 28) MxPx 29) Tom Petty 30) Eve 6 31) Pearl Jam 32) Sick Puppies 33) Goldfinger 34) Nirvana 35) Marvelous 3 36) Fuel 37) Creed 38) Sugarcult 39) Bowling For Soup 40) Billy Talent 41) Hoobastank 42) The Donnas 43) Oasis 44) Saliva 45) The Smashing Pumpkins 46) Unwritten Law 47) Oleander 48) Goo Goo Dolls 49) Incubus 50) Sum 41

TOP 100: 
51) The Exies 52) Powerman 5000 53) Rancid 54) The Wallflowers 55) Ozzy Osbourne 56) Rob Zombie 57) NOFX 58) Finger Eleven 59) Lifehouse 60) Metallica 61) Bush 62) Fountains of Wayne 63) Our Lady Peace 64) Matchbox Twenty 65) Zebrahead 66) Lit 67) Madam Adam 68) Third Eye Blind 69) Stroke 9 70) Helmet 71) GOB 72) Linkin Park 73) Soul Asylum 74) Bon Jovi 75) The Pink Spiders 76) Josh Todd 77) The Bangkok Five 78) The Vines 79) Godsmack 80) The Rolling Stones 81) Disturbed 82) Vains of Jenna 83) Filter 84) My Chemical Romance 85) Limp Bizkit 86) Weezer 87) Kopek 88) Hinder 89) Less Than Jake 90) Three Days Grace 91) Sponge 92) Splender 93) Black Stone Cherry 94) 3 Doors Down 95) Hail The Villain 96) Rage Against The Machine 97) New Politics 98) Areosmith 99) Blink 182 100) Harvey Danger

All American Christmas Carol

Starring: Taryn Manning, Beverly D'Angelo, & Tristan Lake Leabu

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

I have always loved Charles Dicken's classic, A Christmas Carol. I have seen literally dozens of adaptations of it and I still find it to be one of the greatest things ever written. All American Christmas Carol is a redneck take on the story, and while it wasn't a bad film, it wasn't what I thought it would be. Cindy (Taryn Manning) is a single mother, who has three kids from three different men, and she's not even thirty. Her drunken, partying life style doesn't even cover the bills to keep her three kids, Harley (Tristan Lake Leabu), Skoal, and Cheese Doodle in their trailer. Her life and family are headed for disaster, when Harley's father, aptly named Jake Marley, dies in a paintball accident. After the funeral those three ghosts we all know and love show up and try to put Cindy on the right path. This film was unrated and had all the makings of another terrific raunchy Christmas film. I was expecting Bad Santa, instead I got it's Duck Dynasty-esq PG-13 cousin. Kill Theories, Taryn Manning stars and she was great, she was far more believable than any of the ghosts and really made you feel for her character. The other stand out in the film is young Tristan Lake Leabu, who plays her oldest son, Harley. Harley is the man of the house at the ripe old age of 13. With the hilarious redneck antics going on around him, it's hard to remember that he's doing a man's job at a child's age. Leabu played the both sides of this character and did so with the ease of an actor far beyond his years. This is not your typical Christmas Carol, it's not all that raunchy either, but for it was, I was pretty entertaining. I wish they had taken it to the next level and really gone all out with the comedy, but still it didn't take that much away from the film. Rednecks let this film be a warning to you, if you don't do more than drink and have sex, the ghosts of loved ones passed will haunt you and it will be hilarious.

Christmas With The Kranks

Starring: Tim Allen, Jamie Lee Curtis, & Erik Per Sullivan

Rating: 3 1/2 out of 5 stars

With their daughter away in the peace core, Nora and Luther Krank have decided to skip Christmas this year, and take a cruise to the Caribbean. There is only one problem, their Christmas Eve party and elaborate decorations are a staple of their neighborhood, and when the neighbors find out that the family is skipping Christmas this year, they go out of their way to change their minds. This film is your typical goof ball, family, holiday film, except with a much better cast then these things typically have. The chemistry between Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis was terrific, and in my opinion make the whole thing work. Besides the big named cast, producers also included a ton of cameos from the likes of Cheech Marin, Dan Akyrod, and Felicity Huffman, just to name a few. Seeing a big name you really like, who is not listed in the credits, show up even for a small role, it always adds to the enjoyment of the film. This is not the kind of movie that is going to win any awards. It might not even be the kind of holiday film that is remembered ten years from now, but it's certainly entertaining, with some heartfelt moments, and it's good for a few cheap laughs. Christmas With The Kranks delivers everything you expect from a holiday movie, as it is something you can watch with the whole family and it will put you in the holiday spirit.

Hostages (TV Show)

Starring: Toni Collette, Dylan McDermott, Tate Donovan, Rhys Coiro, Sandrine Holt, Billy Brown, Quinn Shephard, Mateus Ward, & James Naughton

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

CBS's innovative and exciting new drama, Hostages, was chosen by critics to be the big hit of the 2013 fall season, but things didn't quite turn out that way. The show was much more than I expected and unlike anything else on network television, but the amazing story is both the reason people did and didn't watch it.

The problem with Hostages was that if people did watch it an it was renewed, where else could you go? Season 2 would have required a whole other cast and story or else it would risk just going around in circles. It's also the kind of show where you have to watch it from the beginning and see every episode to know what's going on, so either way the show was doomed from the beginning. Don't get me wrong, the story was phenomenal, and would have been one of the best mini-series ever, but beyond that there was nowhere to go and I think people realized that.

Dr. Ellen Sanders (Toni Collette) is one of the best surgeons in the country, and her day has come as she has been selected to operate on the President of The United States. The Sanders family are on top of the world, until one night a group of mercenaries break into their home and give her a simple task. Kill the President or we kill your family. From there the family is held hostage until the surgery is upon them. 

Toni Collette stars, and while she's been in a ton of things, this was easily her best performance since the Sixth Sense. She was so good that it seemed like the kind of role that was written specifically for her. The doctor had some wild ideas and took some crazy risks to try and find out who the mercenaries were and why they were really doing this. 

Collette is paired with veteran TV star, Dylan McDermott, who plays double duty as both her captor and as an FBI agent, who has a ton of other things on his plate. The story itself seems simplistic, but there are so many side elements that effect each character, but none more so than McDermott's charachter, FBI agent Duncan Carlyle. 

Hostages is edge of your seat excitement, with a cast that is top notch. There is so much more going on here than a simple hostage situation. Each character has their own story that could really be worthy of a film and the show goes in so many unexpected directions, it just really was outstanding in every sense of the word. 

I absolutely loved this show and watched all 15 episodes in a week, still the show was easily doomed to a single season, because of the complexity and inflexibility of the story.

Dark Space

Starring: Alana Dietze, Steve West, & Tonya Kay

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Dark Space was a small budget independent film, that came out last year. Even with it's small budget, the special effects were really cool, unfortunately, that's where they spent all their money. In the future, space vacations is big business, and six college kids on spring break have rented a ship to travel to one of the many off world locations. The ship is set to go the speed limit and that's not cool for the drunken students. After altering their ship, it flies out of control into an uncharted region, where the group crashes on an unknown planet. The story told in Dark Space is a good one and the special effects were the best I've seen in such an independent film, but the acting was awful! Alana Dietze is the lead and she literally sounded like she was reading from a teleprompter the entire film.  Even the emotional scenes and the action sequences were just so badly portrayed that it was like watching someone read the news. The male lead, Steve West, wasn't much better either has he gives a dry and uneven performance. Independent films are where a lot of people get their start, and to get recognition, they have to do things to help the film stand out of the rest. That is why they spent so much  money on special effects, but what good are the effects or even the terrific story, when you have actors that are so bad, you feel like your watch a middle school play? I liked everything about this film and with a more competent cast, it would have been terrific. If you like a good science fiction story, I'd still watch the film, but the cast just really doesn't cut it.

 NOTE: This is our 700th review!!!

Divergent

Starring: Shailene Woodley, Theo James, & Kate Winslett

Rating: 4 1/2 out of 5 stars

When I first heard about Divergent, I though the first Hunger Games rip off was upon us, and besides that the whole story seemed somewhat confusing. It is Science Fiction and Directed by Neil Berger, the mind behind Limitless, so I decided to give it a shot, and it was the best idea I had in a long time.

In a post war America, the city of Chicago is fenced off from the rest of the world, and has split into five factions of people. At the age of 18, all citizens must take an aptitude test, to determine where they belong. Beatrice (Shailene Woodley) is one of the girls taking the test as the movie starts, and her results show that she has an aptitude for all five factions, making her Divergent. Divergent's are highly intelligent, rebellious, and seen as a threat to the Government, so she hides her results and joins Dauntless, the equivalent of the National Guard in Chicago. During her rough training, the now renamed Trice, meets up with Four (Theo James) who she has an instant connection to, but who is also a threat to her secret identity. One thing that was never explained is why these people have to take the aptitude test, if they are allowed to join whichever faction they choose. It's a major plot hole and the only reason this film didn't receive 5 stars, as I really hate plot holes. Shailene Woodley stars as Trice, making the jump from TV to film, and she has done it with a bang. In much the same way Jennifer Lawrence was the perfect choice to play Katniss, Woodley was perfect for the role of Trice, and brought so much more to the film than I ever thought she would. Theo James is also terrific as Four, the mysterious trainer and love interest of Trice, and together the team is the perfect pair. Divergent is highly original, really well written, and introduced Hollywood to a whole slew of new stars, not to mention it's Director, Neil Burger, is on one hell of a successful run of films. Divergent has everything I look for in a film and in my favorite genre, and for that it is now one of our must see movies!

Born Killers

Starring: Jake Muxworthy, Lauren German, & Gabriel Mann

Rating: 1 1/2 out of 5 stars

I never would have thought that I could be bored watching a movie about a pair of serial killers. Born Killers changed all that, as it is easily the worst serial killer film I've ever seen. Surprisingly enough, this film starts out pretty good and slowly descends into being unwatchable. John & Michael were left to learn about life from their father, a complete psychopath, so it's no surprise, that they turned out to be killers as well. John (Jake Muxworthy) is the quiet, good looking, methodical one, while his brother Michael (Gabriel Mann), is reckless, leaving John to clean up his mess. After we get the back story on the brothers, and see them in action, they go their separate ways, and the story focuses on John. Jake Muxworthy plays the quiet killer, who eventually meets up with a girl. He falls in love and tries to put his killer urges behind him to live the normal life. Muxworthy was the only reason this film got a rating at all. The film lacked the action I was hoping for and just turned into one conversation after another, but Muxworthy was as advertised, as this good looking, methodical killer, who not only plans things down to the last detail, but who also narrates the story. Born Killers wasn't bad in a way where the movie didn't make sense, the problem was how boring and slow moving it was. After the initial action, nothing really happens except for a lot of people doing a lot of talking, and if that's all I wanted to see, I'd just hang out at the mall.