Dexter - The First Five





Season One promo image

 

I have FINALLY seen Dexter Season Five thus, I have now watched all five seasons of Dexter thus far. Season Six debuts October 2, 2011. When people ask me what the show is about, I say in a nutshell,  the show is about a serial killer--who kills serial killers.

For the record-

Dexter is an American television drama series that centers on Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall), a bloodstain pattern analyst for the Miami Metro Police Department who moonlights as a serial killer.

Dexter structures his killing around "Harry's code", a body of ethics and procedures devised by his adoptive father Harry Morgan (who was a Miami cop) to make sure Dexter never gets caught and to ensure that Dexter kills only morally wrong people.

The show debuted on October 1, 2006, on Showtime.-Wikipedia

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Dexter's main enemy in Season One is "The Ice Truck Killer", a serial killer of prostitutes who eludes the Miami Metro Police Department. The killer leaves items at the crime scene that have personal relevance to Dexter.

Image from the Season One storyline

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In Season Two, the bodies of Dexter's victims are uncovered and an investigation is launched in Dexter's own department to find the killer, dubbed the "Bay Harbor Butcher". Keith Carradine appears as Special Agent Frank Lundy (pictured below), an FBI agent who heads the "Bay Harbor Butcher" investigation.

Keith Carradine as Agent Lundy

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In Season Three, Dexter kills a man in self defense and initiates a friendship with the man's brother, Assistant District Attorney Miguel Prado (Jimmy Smits, pictutred below) that deters into an unsuspecting friendship.



Jimmy Smits and Michael C. Hall in a Season Three episode



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In Season Four, Dexter went on to become a family man, and has moved to the suburbs, where he struggles to reconcile his new life with his killing urges. Special Agent Frank Lundy returns (Keith Carradine reprising his role from Season Two) to hunt down the "Trinity Killer" (John Lithgow, pictured below) who he believes always murders three people in a very specific sequence: a young woman in a bathtub, an older mother of two falling to her death, and a father of two bludgeoned to death.

John Lithgow in a Season Four episode

Season Four promo image

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In Season Five, the season focuses on how Dexter deals with his recent loss, coming to terms with it. After Dexter kills his next targeted serial killer & discovers, the killer's next victim Lumen Pierce (played by Julia Stiles, pictured below), whom he has in captivity.

Julia Stiles and Michael C. Hall in a Season Five episode

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Season Six Guest Stars will be Colin Hanks and Mos Def.

Colin Hanks and Mos Def

Colin Hanks will play Travis, Dexter’s main nemesis and a highly intelligent ancient artifacts expert who is linked to a series of grisly murders in Miami.

Mos Def will play a hardened ex-con who claims to have found religion yet seems to continually find himself surrounded by violence. You can see an image  from Season Six premiering October 2, 2011 below.

Michael C. Hall and Mos Def in a Season Six episode

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Below is the Cool Black Mad Killer Commentary on each season where I will try to explain how I felt about each season without giving too much away. Thus my commentary might seem brief. At the end I will provide the Cool Black Killer Countdown of what was the best seasons.

Dexter's main enemy in Season One is "The Ice Truck Killer", a serial killer of prostitutes who eludes the Miami Metro Police Department. The killer leaves items at the crime scene that have personal relevance to Dexter.

Cool Black's Killer Commentary: This season is not only great because it introduced the series, but it contains a great adversary for Dexter. It is also when Dexter is at his most inhuman and detached. He kind of "grows" throughout the rest of the series.

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In Season Two, the bodies of Dexter's victims are uncovered and an investigation is launched in Dexter's own department to find the killer, dubbed the "Bay Harbor Butcher". Keith Carradine appears as Special Agent Frank Lundy , an FBI agent who heads the "Bay Harbor Butcher" investigation.

Cool Black's Killer Commentary: While Special Agent Lundy was Dexter's adversary as he  heads the "Bay Harbor Butcher" investigation, the real worthy adversay for Dexter was HIMSELF when "the bodies of Dexter's victims are uncovered and an investigation is launched in Dexter's own department to find the killer".



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In Season Three, Dexter kills a man in self defense and initiates a friendship with the man's brother, Assistant District Attorney Miguel Prado (Jimmy Smits) that deters into an unsuspecting friendship.

Cool Black's Killer Commentary: While Jimmy Smits was superb, after two fantastic seasons this season was a let down. Overall its worth watching, mostly because of Smits, but nothing to write home about.



 

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In Season Four, Dexter went on to become a family man, and has moved to the suburbs, where he struggles to reconcile his new life with his killing urges. Special Agent Frank Lundy returns (Keith Carradine reprising his role from Season Two) to hunt down the "Trinity Killer" (John Lithgow).

Cool Black's Killer Commentary: After a sub par Season 3, Season 4 really rocked! John Lithgow was super creepy and outstanding.

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In Season Five, the season focuses on how Dexter deals with his recent loss, coming to terms with it. After Dexter kills his next targeted serial killer & discovers, the killer's next victim Lumen Pierce (played by Julia Stiles), whom he has in captivity.

 

Cool Black's Killer Commentary: Because of the aforementioned loss, Dexter this season had to be different and accomplished that with the introduction of the Lumen character also superbly played by Julia Stiles. A really good season.

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Here are what I thought was the best seasons of Dexter's first five seasons worst to best.

5. Season Three

4. Season Five

3. Season Four

2. Season Two

1. Season One

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Luther - The Cool Black Review

I’ve been meaning to write a review of this show since I finally saw it months ago. In brief, the show is just EXCELLENT.

Luther is a British psychological crime drama television series starring Idris Elba as the title character Detective Chief Inspector John Luther. A first series of six episodes (Series One) was broadcast on BBC One from May 4 to June 8, 2010. The second series of four episodes (series Two) was shown on BBC One in summer 2011. The second series is set to debut on BBC America in September.

Idris Elba’s “Stringer Bell” was my favorite character on The Wire (you can read more about that here), owing much to the performance of Mr. Elba. As much as I thought his performance as Stringer was very good, his performance as DCI Luther was outstanding!

A personal pet peeve of mine is a lot of foreign actors getting major roles in American television and film, well maybe the American actors need to step their game up because the British actors on Luther were for the most part excellent. Of particular excellence was Ruth Wilson (pictured below) as Alice Morgan.

Ruth Wilson

The scenes between Alice and Luther are ELECTRIC. That’s all I want to say about that for you should see it for yourself.


Idris Elba as DCI Luther and Ruth Wilson as Alice Morgan

 I must also note that the direction and cinematography was great as well. Even though I thought the climax of Series One (2010) was kind of rushed to wrap up the many storylines, I am still looking forward to Series Two in September.

Any fan of really good police drama should see this show!

Related Post-
The Wire-My Favorite Season

Related link-

Luther Official Web Page

OldBoy - The Cool Black Review

OldBoy

Directed by: Park Chan-wook

Produced by: Lim Seng-yong

Written by: Hwang Jo-yun, Park Chan-wook, Lim Chun-hyeong, Lim Joon-hyung, Garon Tsuchiya

Starring:
Choi Min-sik
Yu Ji-tae
Kang Hye-jeong

Cinematography: Chung Chung-hoon



Release date(s): Internationally 2003-2004
USA-Various film festivals -2005

Summary: The film follows the story of one Oh Dae-Su (Choi Min-sik), who is locked in a hotel room for 15 years without knowing his captor's motives. When he is finally released, Dae-su finds himself still trapped in a web of conspiracy and violence. His own quest for vengeance becomes tied in with romance when he falls for an attractive sushi chef.

REVIEW by Cool Black
Since I’m not a fan of too much international cinema, (I’m a slave for American cinema. I know :-( ) I never even heard of OldBoy before Spike Lee signed on the direct the remake (read more about that here ) Having said that, let’s get on with the review.

If you think the summary above sounds way out, you don’t know the half of it. The film takes some wild detours into the “web of conspiracy” and that’s all I’m going to say about that.

The protagonist Oh Dae-Su (Choi Min-sik) and antagonist and Lee Woo-jin (Yu Ji-tae) are both excellent. This IS a tale of vengeance, but expect more dramatic scenes about the plot than action because of it. Truthfully the drama is more important to this film than the action and Choi Min-sik and Yu Ji-tae give great performances.

The direction by Park Chan-wook and cinematography by Chung Chung-hoon is some of the best I have ever seen. The visual style was well…excellent. Park Chan-wook gave necessary balance to both the visual and dramatic in this picture and excelled at both.

The violence in the film is for a reason, which again I won’t get into, but it has to do with the “quest for vengeance”. I’ve seen lesser films have unbridled violence for less than substantial reasons. There are really no elaborate action “set pieces” and again the action is organic to the film. Even when Oh Dae-Su finds out why he was imprisoned, the ensuing violence is not what you’d expect…well some of what you’d expect, but again I’ll have to refrain from saying more.

Ultimately, if you are a fan of action thrillers and excellent movies, you should see this film!

The Partner by John Grisham - The Cool Black Review

The Partner by John Grisham

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Having read of eight his books I can say that John Grisham is my favorite author. I haven’t read one of his books in over 10 years and I can see not much has changed. The last book I read was his 1996 book ‘The Runaway Jury’. This one was his next book published in 1997 and it recounts the same territory of a Grisham book. One man embroiled in some huge dilemma aided by a woman surrounded by a group of shady adversaries who are out to get him. That’s pretty much half of the plots to his books except in The Pelican Brief it was - One [wo]man embroiled in some huge dilemma aided by a man surrounded by a group of shady adversaries who are out to get [her].

I generally enjoy his books or I wouldn’t have read so many, but it was nothing that new or original in this book. The protagonist, Patrick Lanigan, was pretty much a bastard who wrapped everyone he meets around his finger. The fact that I thought he was a bastard made every “trick” he did sleazier. To be clear he wasn’t supposed to be a villain, but I didn’t find him likeable. Grisham does do a good job at keeping one of the main mysteries of if this guy is alive then WHO is buried in his grave until pretty much the end. He also overspreads the details of exactly how this guy faked his death until later in the book.

The book indeed gets off to a rocking start and the mystery is intriguing, but once you figure out what an unlikable figure Patrick is, the book spirals down from there.

View all my reviews

Charlie Murphy-The Making of a Stand-Up Guy REVIEW

The Making of a Stand-Up Guy by Charlie Murphy

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I read this book because to me Charlie’s story is just as interesting as his brother Eddie’s. This was a guy who seemed really be from the streets and led a hard knock life. He also made several funny appearances on the Howard Stern Show, telling his tales of his background. Even though he tells some humorous tales here and there, the book as a memoir is average. He has lived an interesting life, but nothing I found extraordinary.

As a screenwriter/filmmaker myself, I found the most interesting facets of the book were about his scriptwriting. I had no idea that he sold so many scripts to Hollywood even though only few got made into films (which is the norm in Hollywood for most scripts).

He spends a lot, maybe too much time, recounting his venture into stand up comedy which I know I should expect from a book called ‘The Making of a Stand-Up Guy’, but I didn’t expect so much detail. Maybe I’m not a “stand-up guy” because I didn’t’ require a lot of details about the clubs he first played. He did have several laugh out loud humorous tales, but the book to me is something you read in high school when you HAVE to do a book report on someone.

View all my reviews

Confessions of a Video Vixen-Book Review

Review originally published January 6, 2006 6:44 PM

CONFESSIONS OF A VIDEO VIXEN

Excerpt:

Glass vases filled with marbles crashed all around us as he began tossing linens from the bed. As the marbles scattered, we laughed in unison ... I remember the exact moment that I first laid on my back for him ... My legs were wrapped around his waist and just before his body was to merge with mine, I noticed his upper right chest. On it was a tattoo with the words "Pain is Love."

Confessions of a Video Vixen is the widely anticipated memoir of Karrine Steffans, the once sought-after sexy siren who appeared in the music videos of multiplatinum hip-hop artists such as Jay-Z, R. Kelly, and LL Cool J. A top-paid video dancer, Karrine transitioned to film when acclaimed director F. Gary Gray picked her to costar in his film A Man Apart, starring Vin Diesel. But the movie and music video sets, swanky Miami and New York restaurants, and trysts with the celebrities featured in the pages of People and In Touch magazines only skims the surface of Karrine's life.

This memoir -- part tell all, part cautionary tale -- shows how Karrinne came to be the confidante of so many, why she kept their secrets, and how she found herself in Hollywood after a life marked by physical abuse, rape, and drugs -- all before she was twenty-six. By sharing her emotionally charged story, she hopes to shed light on an otherwise romanticized industry.

The COOL BLACK REVIEW
I recommend this book, but it is nothing spectacular. Her horrible childhood, and it was horrible, seems almost cliché. Maybe I'm a cynic, but if you heard one story of being whipped with some object you've heard them all. The worst tales come from her relationship with old school rapper Kool G Rap. It really details how a person can humiliate and control another human being.

The book goes onto to detail the many, and there were many, sexual relationships or just encounters with famous people. If you are looking for some explicit details, sorry you'll have to buy some porn. LOL. She doesn't get into any explicit details about the sexual encounters, but she does detail the situations.

Of course you want to know whom she mentions in the book and here they are in alphabetical order:

•BOBBY BROWN

•DMX

•DR. DRE

•ICE-T

•IRV GOTTI

•JA RULE

•JAY-Z

•KOOL G RAP

•MERLIN SANTANA ("Romeo" from The Steve Harvey Show)

•P. DIDDY

•RAY-J

•SHAQUILLE O'NEAL

•USHER

•VIN DIESEL

•XZIBIT

She was so "plentiful" I may have missed a couple of people, but that is the gist of the celebs. The ONE person she does not mention is a rapper she named "Papa", who helped her out tremendously.

Nicki Minaj-Pink Friday REVIEW



Like her Young Money music label cohort Drake, Nicki Minaj makes hip-POP. (Young Money Entertainment is an American record label founded by rapper Lil Wayne.) Like I said in the review of his album “I like pop, I like hip-hop. A merger of the two, done successfully, can be good.” As a whole this is a good album, a HOT album? That remains to be seen. I classify an album HOT when half or more of the tracks are HOT.


The “high profile song” of the album "Roman's Revenge" (featuring Eminem) with production by super producer Swizz Beatz is cool, but I’m not sold on it as a hot track yet. Another high profile song is "Check It Out" (featuring will.i.am). The song is a good “club banger” and a good pop song, but the production by will.i.am is redundant and it sounds like every other he has produced. The only collaboration with label mate Drake "Moment 4 Life" doesn’t succeed despite a nice opening rhyme from Nicki.

One of the standout HOT songs leads off the album "I'm the Best” with good production by Kane Beatz. Kane Beatz also produced the really nice pop song "Dear Old Nicki".

One of the hottest beats on the album is in the song “Did It on 'em" produced by Bangladesh who produced "A Milli" by Lil Wayne and "Diva" by Beyoncé. The hook which I will not repeat here makes the song HOT as well.

What has been called a “standout song” of the album "Right Thru Me” produced by Drew Money is also hot with another hook I will not repeat. Two of the best tracks on the album were produced by Oak and Papa Justifi "Your Love" (which was released as the album's first official US single on June 1, 2010) and “Muny” which is only available on the “Deluxe version” of the album.

Some of the best rhyming by Nicki happens on the iTunes exclusive track "Girls Fall Like Dominoes” produced by J.R. Rotem.

In the end, Nicki Minaj’s rhymes are filled with antics, but they are still clever and supremely executed. She IS the best female MC in the game right now and while this album is no masterpiece it is still a great listen and as a whole works. As usual below I will post track for track what is HOT. The tracks that I think have "hot" potential are listed as warm.


1. "I'm the Best" HOT
2. "Roman's Revenge" (featuring Eminem) warm
3. "Did It on 'em" HOT
4. "Right Thru Me" HOT
5. "Fly" (featuring Rihanna)
6. "Save Me"
7. "Moment 4 Life" (featuring Drake)
8. "Check It Out" (featuring will.i.am) warm
9. "Blazin" (featuring Kanye West)
10. "Here I Am"
11. "Dear Old Nicki" warm
12. "Your Love" HOT
13. "Last Chance" (featuring Natasha Bedingfield)

Deluxe Edition additional tracks
14. "Super Bass"
15. "Blow Ya Mind"
16. "Muny" HOT

iTunes Store Deluxe Edition bonus track
17. "Girls Fall Like Dominoes" HOT

Cool Black UPDATE (February 10, 2011): After listening to the album several times these two tracks are fun  :) pop tracks.

13. "Last Chance" (featuring Natasha Bedingfield) warm
14. "Super Bass" warm

Kanye West ‘Fantasy’ Review…sort of

Kanye West

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

 

I try not to read reviews until I see (movies) or hear (music) the work. I never want some reviewer to skewer my experience and I don’t want to subconsciously repeat what they say. In this age of the Internet, it is impossible to not read blurbs and a blurb I read about this album was that to forget the many singles Kanye has released over the summer this album should be listened to as a whole and I totally agree.

 
For the record Kanye initiated the free music program G.O.O.D. Fridays through his website on August 20, 2010, offering a free download of previously unreleased songs each Friday of the week, a portion of which were included on the album. Some of the songs on this album aren’t singles that you would play on the radio or in the club, but as a whole the album succeeds…in fact it’s a masterpiece.

I will say that Kanye West has always been an amazing producer and adequate rapper. For some people being a MC has to evolve and Kanye has evolved…as an MC. Kanye spits some of the best rhymes of his career on this album and I am going so far as to say that his rhymes and flow on ‘Monster’ are not only better than hip hop heavy hitters Rick Ross, Nicki Minaj and the most incredible Jay-Z, but the best of his whole career. On this song Kanye is a beast…or “Monster” as it were.

When I review an album I usually list track for track what’s HOT, but I’m not…I can’t for this album. Even for the tracks that I don't think is super hot, work with the complete piece. I usually also list who produced what of the hot tracks and again that’s futile. Below is a link where you can see for yourself who produced and appeared on these amazing tracks.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Twisted_Fantasy#Track_listing

For Colored Girls - The Cool Black Review

For Colored Girls
Starring
Principal cast
Janet Jackson
Thandie Newton
Whoopi Goldberg
Loretta Devine
Anika Noni Rose
Kimberly Elise
Kerry Washington
Phylicia Rashad






Supporting castTessa Thompson
Michael Ealy
Macy Gray
Omari Hardwick
Hill Harper
Khalil Kain
Richard Lawson

Directed, Produced, and Written by Tyler Perry
Released: November 5, 2010 (USA)



Summary: For Colored Girls is a 2010 American film directed, produced, and written by Tyler Perry. It is an adaptation of Ntozake Shange's 1975 stage play For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf (pictured right). Structurally, For Colored Girls... (1975) is a series of 20 poems, collectively called a "choreopoem."

A choreopoem is a work that combines dance and poetry so that each complements the other in a highly dramatic way. The term first appeared in the orginal For Colored Girls... (1975), by Ntozake Shange, an African-American woman. Shange, (Paulette Williams was her birth name), wanted to create a new art form that was different from traditional western (and white) poetry. So, while working with young black girls, she developed the form, which doesn't contain traditional elements of plot and characters, it instead focuses on creating an emotional response within the audience. -Lord Nathan, everything2.com

For Colored Girls... (1975), is performed by a cast of seven women characters,each of whom is known only by a color: "Lady in Yellow," "Lady in Purple," etc. In this 2010 adaptation, since this is a movie, it is structured around a "six degrees of separation" type of storyline.

REVIEW by Cool BlackThis is a really good film. I’m not familiar AT ALL with the source material (1975 stage play) so this is my first exposure to it and I have to say Mr. Perry did a really good job. As stated in the summary above all of the characters in the “choreopoem” are “structured around a "six degrees of separation" type of storyline.” And that is effective as well. The poems will make themselves evident without seeming out of context. There is no blank background or weird camera angle or lighting to let you know “this is one of the poems”, they just become a part of the scenes like a character’s monologue or soliloquy.

The performances in this film are on the most part EXCELLENT, a word I never use lightly. The standout performances are Phylicia Rashad, Thandie Newton and Kimberly Elise. The rest of the cast do great jobs as well including Kerry Washington, Anika Noni Rose, Janet Jackson, Whoopi Goldberg, Loretta Devine and Tessa Thompson.

Lastly I have to give props to Mr. Tyler Perry who directed, produced, and wrote this film and did a great job at adapting a choreopoem that "doesn't contain traditional elements of plot and characters" into a motion picture.

In an October 2010 press conference with the cast, Perry credited his full body of work for being able to make the film, stating, "It took everything – Madea, House of Payne and all of that for me to be able to do For Colored Girls. Had none of that happened I wouldn’t have been able to say, “Listen, this is what I want to do next,” so I’m very proud of it all." ( UrbLife.com)

I totally agree with Mr.Perry.

Cool Black's Mad Commentary: I heard Oprah Winfrey say this film is having “Oscar buzz” and I thought blah, blah, blah, Oprah is Tyler Perry’s good friend so of course would throw terms like that out there.

Well I have to agree with Ms. Winfrey, I think the acting in this film will get several Oscar nominations. In particular I’m going to state NOW several months before the actual nominations that Phylicia Rashad, Thandie Newton and Kimberly Elise will get nominations. Since this is an ensemble piece probably for Best Supporting Actress, but Kimberly Elise might get a Best Actress nomination since she is heavily featured. Janet Jackson who also did a great job might get a nomination because she is a really famous person who did a really good job. Oscars are a popularity contest as well.

Additional quote-

Manohla Dargis of the New York Times published this November 4, 2010 in the review for 'For Colored Girls'.

As it turns out, Mr. Perry, while busily establishing his economic independence, has been finding his voice as a filmmaker. And here, working with fine performers like Ms. Elise, Anika Noni Rose, Phylicia Rashad and Kerry Washington, he sings the song the way he likes it — with force, feeling and tremendous sincerity.

I totally agree with this one as well.-Cool Black

*Related linksFor Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf (1975)(Wikipedia)

For Colored Girls (2010) (Wikipedia)

Full Cast Interview:
UrbLife.com. October 26, 2010.

You can see the other great art designs on the other movie posters like the one below right here

Drake 'Thank Me Later' REVIEW

Let I get this straight from the get go. Drake’s album is more hip-pop than hip-hop and that’s ok. I like pop, I like hip-hop. A merger of the two, done successfully, can be good. Some of the songs sound like he’s (or rather his producers) been listening to a little too much Prince and don’t work, but some songs like “Shut it Down” (Featuring The-Dream) is the perfect song to be blasting cruising late night in your ride. Drake also does A LOT of singing in this album which sometimes works and sometimes don’t.


Most of the producing of the album was done by Noah "40" Shebib & Boi 1 Da and one if not both of them make some of the hottest tracks on the album, like “Over”& “Shut it Down”. Some of the songs they produced like “Fireworks” (Featuring Alicia Keys) & “Up All Night” (Featuring Nicki Minaj) can be hot if I hear them enough, but right now NO. In fact all of the guest performers, and he has some all-star guests, on this album never really add anything to it.


Even what used to be the best man in the biz, when it came to cameos, falls flat on “Miss Me” (Featuring Lil Wayne). In fact even though the song doesn’t work Drake has some of his best rhyming on this song and out rhymes Weezy. T.I. repays the favor and out rhymes Drake on another song that doesn’t work “Fancy” (Featuring T.I. & Swizz Beatz) despite a clever use of a Juvenile (the rapper) sample. “Unforgettable” (Featuring Young Jeezy) starting off with a nice sample from Aaliyah never continues to use it effectively and even Jeezy can’t save the song.


Despite what you may think of him, Kanye West is still one of the best producers in the game and both of the tracks he produced “Show Me a Good Time” and “Find Your Love” are some of the hottest on the album.

Out of the 13 (full) tracks on the album, only 4 are HOT. That makes less than half. As usual, below you can see exactly which tracks I thought were hot. Even though I’m really feeling the hot tracks, sorry Drake, I won’t thank you now and I doubt if I will thank you later.


1. Fireworks (Featuring Alicia Keys)
2. Karaoke
3. The Resistance
4. Over HOT
5. Show Me a Good Time HOT
6. Up All Night (Featuring Nicki Minaj) warm
7. Fancy (Featuring T.I. & Swizz Beatz)
8. Shut It Down (Featuring The-Dream)
HOT9. Unforgettable (Featuring Young Jeezy)
10. Light Up (Featuring Jay-Z)
11. Miss Me (Featuring Lil Wayne)
12. Cece's Interlude
13. Find Your Love HOT
14. Thank Me Now


July 4, 2010 Amendment: Okay I can admit when I'm wrong. The album is growing on me as a whole. Some of the songs that I can't even call "warm" yet work ok as you play the album in full.

Tracks I didn't think worked before now do...sorta. Lil Wayne's verses on Miss Me are still whack, but as I said before "Drake has some of his best rhyming on this song and out rhymes Weezy." I'm going to reclassify this song newlyHOT despite Lil Wayne's whackness. Another newlyHOT song Unforgettable (Featuring Young Jeezy) definitley grew on me as well. I still really like Up All Night (Featuring Nicki Minaj), but I'm not ready to classify it as HOT yet so it will stay warm. There are some newlywarm songs Fireworks (Featuring Alicia Keys) and The Resistance. I still find nothing fantastic about the songs, but they are very "listenable".

So NOW out of the 13 (full) tracks on the album, 6 are HOT and 3 warm. That makes 9 out of 13 tracks good or "gooder" a better average than I had only after a couple of days of listening to the album. I have reposted the tracks below where you can see exactly which tracks I thought were hot and now the newly reclassified rankings. Maybe indeed Drake...I will thank you later.


1. Fireworks (Featuring Alicia Keys) newlywarm
2. Karaoke
3. The Resistance newlywarm
4. Over HOT
5. Show Me a Good Time HOT
6. Up All Night (Featuring Nicki Minaj) warm
7. Fancy (Featuring T.I. & Swizz Beatz)
8. Shut It Down (Featuring The-Dream) HOT
9. Unforgettable (Featuring Young Jeezy) newlyHOT
10. Light Up (Featuring Jay-Z)
11. Miss Me (Featuring Lil Wayne) newlyHOT
12. Cece's Interlude
13. Find Your Love HOT
14. Thank Me Now

Michael Jackson's This is It-Review

Michael Jackson's This is It

Directed by Kenny Ortega
Michael Jackson (stage actions)

Produced by Paul Gongaware,
Randy Phillips

Cinematography by Kevin Mazur

Released: Ocotber 28, 2009 (USA)

REVIEW by Cool Black

This Is It...Ain't It. Before you say that's cold. Let me explain. I’m gonna say it from the start, this movie is ok. Don’t get it twisted, I didn’t hate it and it’s not a bad movie, but you have to keep in mind several factors.

This footage was never meant to be released as a film. It's NOT a documentary and doesn't have a story. This is a bunch of filmed rehearsals. It was meant to be compiled into one of those promotional films that plays while Michael changes costumes and the crew changes the sets and stuff. All of this footage probably was supposed to be in a 10-15 minute film not a 2 hour one.

Having said that, you do get glimpses (only glimpses) into what a creative person and perfectionist he was. You also get glimpses into what a FANTASTIC tour this would have been. You get to see some of the set designs and set-ups for his most popular songs. Also let me say that 95% of this film is Michael. I was expecting a lot of filler interviews and such, but there wasn’t. It’s all Michael and kudos to the filmmakers for that.

Latoya Jackson stated that she felt that Michael wouldn't have wanted the film to have been released because he wasn't giving his all into his performances.

"Michael [Jackson] always wants to give his best. This is a rehearsal. He wasn’t giving his all [...] He loves to give his all always. That’s just the way he is. He wants people to see him at the top of the ladder and not half-stepping because he doesn’t want to do a full-out rehearsal."*

That seems true in this film, these are rehearsals and Michael didn’t want to go “full blast” with his singing and dancing, but the film happens to catch moments when he just couldn’t help it and sang and danced his heart out. His voice was just as perfect as ever and his dancing was equally on point.

The end result of this film is that you see that Michael wasn’t in this just to make a buck, he wasn’t going to “phone it in”. Michael was committed to bringing an ultimate concert experience and nothing less. A true testament to his vision, his talent, his genius.

*Latoya Jackson quote source: Access Hollywood

Cool Black's Mad Commentary: After his death there were reports that Michael was not physically fit enough to do this tour. While he was quite thin, he was moving, grooving and singing just as well as he ever has. As a filmmaker I know that any footage that cast Michael in a negative light (as far as his health) would never make it into this film, but from what I saw he was ready as ever.

Related post: Michael Jackson Memories

BOX OFFICE UPDATE

Big Sunday shows 'This Is It' isn't performing like a concert film
Los Angeles Times
November 2, 2009 1:13 pm

"This Is It" continues to throw all the old rules about concert movies out the window.

Domestic ticket sales for the Michael Jackson (pictured left) movie totaled $8.3 million on Sunday, nearly $2 million more than the $6.3 million Sony Pictures projected Sunday morning and 17% more than the movie grossed on Saturday. The movie's total domestic gross is now $34.4 million, making the worldwide number $103 million.

Concert movies traditionally see ticket sales decline rapidly after they premiere, as avid fans who turn out on opening day make up most of the audience. But "This Is It" grossed more on Sunday than any day since it debuted, a sign that word-of-mouth is strong and moviegoers who initially may have been hesitant are turning out. There also may be repeat viewing, which is often the case for concert films.

If the trend continues, "This Is It" should enjoy a relatively modest decline next weekend, and what initially looked like a middling domestic performance may actually turn into a pretty good one, albeit not nearly as big as overseas. That's where Jackson is really cleaning up.

-- Ben Fritz

Jay-Z: The Blueprint III REVIEW

I bought Press Play by Diddy because of the hot single (Come to Me with Nicole Scherzinger) and he knows what a hot beat sounds like. I liked and appreciated the album because of the hot beats and the varying different styles.

You don’t buy a Puffy, (you can call him Diddy) album for the lyrical skill. You thought this was a review for The Blueprint III? It is bear with me. The first time I listened to this album that’s who I thought of, Puffy. While the lyrical skill is quite evident I thought the production was all over the place. In other words varied. Variety is cool on a Puffy album because that’s what you are listening for. Something to entertain. While it is hip-hop it’s more “hip-pop” and that’s fine, again I liked the album.

When you buy a Jay-Z album you look for HIP HOP. While Jay has been “mainstream” for years I was expecting a harder edge. I guess the Jay-Z of Reasonable Doubt, Hard Knock Life, Blueprint [1] and The Black Album is gone (gotten old? I didn’t say that).

Now I got that off of my chest, this is still a good album and while only one third of the tracks are HOT (5 out of the 15 tracks) all of it is “listenable”. D.O.A. (Death Of Auto-Tune), released as the first single of the album in June, seems more like a statement than a hot song. The last two songs on the album don’t really work either. Jay-Z has an amusing track Hate (Featuring Kanye West) that at 2:31 can be considered an interlude though not listed as such.

Jay had superstar producers like No ID (D.O.A.), Swizz Beats (On To the Next One), Kanye West (Run This Town), The Neptunes (So Ambitious) but one of my favorite tracks was produced by someone I never heard of (Empire State of Mind) by a producer named Shux. The most prolifically HOT producer on this album wasn’t Kanye, but Timbaland. Timbaland produced the bangers Off That (Featuring Drake) and Venus VS. Mars. But enough of me talking about the production here is track list and what’s HOT.

Because the lyrical skill is still above reproach, for the first time in my reviews, I’m going to provide links to all of the tracks. (*All links go to an external site and I can’t guarantee the accuracy of the lyrics)

1. What We Talkin’ About (feat. Luke Steele (Of Empire Of The Sun))
2. Thank You
3. D.O.A. (Death Of Auto-Tune)
4. Run This Town (feat. Rihanna & Kanye West) HOT
5. Empire State Of Mind (feat. Alicia Keys) HOT
6. Real As It Gets (feat. Young Jeezy)
7. On To The Next One (feat. Swizz Beatz) HOT
8. Off That (feat. Drake) HOT
9. A Star Is Born (feat. J. Cole)
10. Venus Vs. Mars HOT
11. Already Home (feat. Kid Cudi)
12. Hate (feat. Kanye West)
13. Reminder
14. So Ambitious (feat. Pharrell)
15. Young Forever (feat. Mr Hudson)