Fuse Top 20 Countdown – 8/12/14

August 13, 2014

jmunney Fuse Top 20 Countdown, Music, Television Leave a comment

Each week, I check out FUSE’s Top 20 countdown, and then I rearrange the songs based on my estimation of their quality.

Original Version
1. Sam Smith – “Stay With Me”
2. Meghan Trainor – “All About That Bass”
3. Magic! – “Rude”
4. Nico & Vinz – “Am I Wrong”
5. Maroon 5 – “Maps”
6. Ariana Grande ft. Iggy Azalea – “Problem”
7. Charli XCX – “Boom Clap”
8. Sia – “Chandelier”
9. Becky G – “Shower”
10. Clean Bandit ft. Jess Glynne – “Rather Be”
11. OneRepublic – “Love Runs Out”
12. Iggy Azalea ft. Charli XCX – “Fancy”
13. Hilary Duff – “Chasing the Sun”
14. Disclosure ft. Sam Smith – “Latch”
15. Kongos – “Come With Me Now”
16. Echosmith – “Cool Kids”
17. Calvin Harris – “Summer”
18. Jason Derulo ft. Snoop Dogg – “Wiggle”
19. Pharrell ft. Miley Cyrus – “Come Get It Bae”
20. Coldplay – “A Sky Full of Stars”

Jmunney’s Revision
1. Chandelier
2. Summer
3. Fancy
4. Come With Me Now
5. Latch
6. Stay With Me
7. Come Get It Bae
8. Rather Be
9. Cool Kids
10. Am I Wrong
11. Boom Clap
12. Problem
13. Love Runs Out
14. A Sky Full of Stars
15. Maps
16. Rude
17. All About That Bass
18. Wiggle
19. Chasing the Sun
20. Shower

Best Episode of the Season: Arrow Season 2

August 12, 2014

jmunney Arrow, Best Episodes of the 2013-2014 Season, Best Episodes of the Season, Television Leave a comment

Season Analysis: With its cast getting better and better and its action continuing to be exciting, Arrow made a case for itself as the best live-action superhero series of all time.

Streets of Fire

“Streets of Fire”
To know why Arrow’s penultimate Season 2 episode was the show at its best, all you have to do is watch this scene:

Felicity’s defiant declaration of her belief in Oliver’s righteousness and ability is the best possible reminder of his duty to the city, effectively re-establishing the Arrow’s mission statement.  At Oliver’s bleakest hour, the show takes a moment to emphasize how far our protagonists have come and why they deserve faith in the face of seemingly impossible odds.  Almost succumbing to despair in response to all the loved ones he’s lost, Oliver is reassured by Felicity, who responds that “you honor the dead by fighting,” counteracting his list of the dead with a list of all those who meant harm to Starling City that he has stopped.  Oliver Queen has come a long way: he was on his own when he became the vigilante, but now, as one as of his closest partners makes clear, he could not be farther from solitude: he is not alone, and she believes in him.

This Is A Movie Review: The Purge: Anarchy

August 11, 2014

jmunney Cinema, Movie Reviews , Leave a comment

THE-PURGE-ANARCHY-1

The first Purge (2013) had an intriguing (albeit patently ridiculous) premise: what if all crime were legal for one annual 12-hour period?  As that movie and its sequel, The Purge: Anarchy, would have it, this tradition has reduced all crime for the rest of the year and unemployment to negligible levels.  It is never clear how those results are effected, but that is besides the point.  The premise is just an excuse to create a horrific landscape of lawlessness.  The first Purge squandered that opportunity by limiting itself to a typical home-invasion flick.  This sequel, which is essentially a do-over, has the right idea by setting its protagonists loose on the streets of Los Angeles the night of the Purge, but its execution is lacking.

The thing is, a B-movie that runs about an hour and a half is always going to have to ultimately limit its focus, even when its premise suggests a context with a much wider scope.  Anarchy, like its predecessor, offers an intriguing milieu, with a strange cult-like adoration of the “New Founding Fathers of America” regime and the inevitable class warfare.  But the actual characters that the narrative follows do not offer much in the way of exploration of these themes, and the casting does little to help.  Frank Grillo provides decent screen presence as a police sergeant apparently seeking vengeance for the events of a previous Purge.  Carmen Ejogo and Zoë Soul, as a persecuted mother-daughter duo, are too thinly sketched to be memorable for the right reasons and too adequate to be memorable for the wrong reasons.  Zach Gilford and Kiele Sanchez struggle to elevate the typical horror roles of a couple who make dumb decisions and give us little reason to sympathize with them.

Anarchy only comes alive when the electric Michael K. Williams appears intermittently as the leader of an anti-Purge resistance group.  His fight-the-real-enemy ethos kicks the proceedings into the gear of a thematic focus that the rest of the film sorely lacks. C+

What Won TV? – August 3-August 9, 2014

August 10, 2014

jmunney Music, Television, What Won TV? Leave a comment

In this feature, I look back at each day of the past week and determine what shows “won TV” for the night. That is, I consider every episode of television I watched that aired on a particular day and declare which was the best.

Sunday – Masters of Sex
Monday – Gravity Falls (Monday was the day that Gravity Falls aired on Disney X D, but I kind of want to assign it to Friday, the day it aired on regular Disney, since Whose Line is it Anyway? was also so great on Monday.)
Tuesday – (Whoop!) I assume most of you are impressed by how much Nathan For You accomplishes every week.
Wednesday – The Meltdown Show With Jonah and Kumail
Thursday – Rectify
Friday – Girl Meets World (Although I’d like to pretend that Friday was the first day Gravity Falls aired, since GMW wasn’t at its best.)
Saturday – I caught a little bit of the PGA Championship.

VH1 Top 20 Countdown – 8/9/14

August 9, 2014

jmunney Music, Television, VH1 Top 20 Countdown Leave a comment

Each week, I check out VH1′s Top 20 countdown, and then I rearrange the songs based on my estimation of their quality.

Original Version
1. Magic! – “Rude”
2. Sam Smith – “Stay With Me”
3. Nico & Vinz – “Am I Wrong”
4. Disclosure ft. Sam Smith – “Latch”
5. Sia – “Chandelier”
6. Maroon 5 – “Maps”
7. OneRepublic – “Love Runs Out”
8. Ariana Grande ft. Iggy Azalea – “Problem”
9. Calvin Harris – “Summer”
10. Charli XCX – “Boom Clap”
11. Demi Lovato ft. Cher Lloyd – “Really Don’t Care”
12. Pharrell Williams ft. Miley Cyrus – “Come Get It Bae”
13. Clean Bandit ft. Jess Glynne – “Rather Be”
14. Iggy Azalea ft. Charli XCX – “Fancy”
15. Kongos – “Come With Me Now”
16. American Authors – “Believer”
17. Meghan Trainor – “All About That Bass”
18. Kiesza – “Hideaway”
19. Coldplay – “A Sky Full of Stars”
20. Andy Grammer – “Back Home”

Jmunney’s Revision
1. Chandelier
2. Summer
3. Fancy
4. Come With Me Now
5. Hideaway
6. Latch
7. Stay With Me
8. Come Get It Bae
9. Rather Be
10. Am I Wrong
11. Boom Clap
12. Problem
13. Love Runs Out
14. Really Don’t Care
15. A Sky Full of Stars
16. Maps
17. Rude
18. All About That Bass
19. Believer
20. Back Home

Fuse Top 20 Countdown – 8/5/14

August 6, 2014

jmunney Fuse Top 20 Countdown, Music, Television Leave a comment

Each week, I check out FUSE’s Top 20 countdown, and then I rearrange the songs based on my estimation of their quality.

Original Version
1. Magic! – “Rude”
2. Nico & Vinz – “Am I Wrong”
3. Sam Smith – “Stay With Me”
4. Maroon 5 – “Maps”
5. Ariana Grande ft. Iggy Azalea – “Problem”
6. Charli XCX – “Boom Clap”
7. Becky G – “Shower”
8. Meghan Trainor – “All About That Bass”
9. Sia – “Chandelier”
10. Iggy Azalea ft. Charli XCX – “Fancy”
11. Clean Bandit ft. Jess Glynne – “Rather Be”
12. OneRepublic – “Love Runs Out”
13. Disclosure ft. Sam Smith – “Latch”
14. Jason Derulo ft. Snoop Dogg – “Wiggle”
15. Kongos – “Come With Me Now”
16. Calvin Harris – “Summer”
17. 5 Seconds of Summer – “She Looks So Perfect”
18. Echosmith – “Cool Kids”
19. John Legend – “All of Me”
20. Pharrell ft. Miley Cyrus – “Come Get It Bae”

Jmunney’s Revision
1. Chandelier
2. Summer
3. Fancy
4. Come With Me Now
5. Latch
6. Stay With Me
7. Come Get It Bae
8. Rather Be
9. Cool Kids
10. Am I Wrong
11. Boom Clap
12. Problem
13. Love Runs Out
14. Maps
15. All of Me
16. Rude
17. All About That Bass
18. Wiggle
19. She Looks So Perfect
20. Shower

What Won TV? – July 27-August 2, 2014

August 3, 2014

jmunney Television, What Won TV? Leave a comment

In this dumb feature, I look back at each dumb day of the past dumb week and determine what dumb shows “won TV” for the dumb night. That is, I consider every dumb episode of dumb television I watched that aired on a particular dumb day and declare which was the dumb best.

Sunday – Dumb Masters of Sex
Monday – Dumb Jeopardy!
Tuesday – Nathan For You
Wednesday – Dumb Sharknado: The Dumb Second One
Thursday – You’re the Dumb Worst
Friday – The dumb final of the Jeopardy! Dumb Teen Tournament
Saturday – N/A

VH1 Top 20 Countdown – 8/2/14

August 2, 2014

jmunney Music, Television, VH1 Top 20 Countdown Leave a comment

Each week, I check out VH1′s Top 20 countdown, and then I rearrange the songs based on my estimation of their quality.

Original Version
1. Magic! – “Rude”
2. Nico & Vinz – “Am I Wrong”
3. Ariana Grande ft. Iggy Azalea – “Problem”
4. Sam Smith – “Stay With Me”
5. Disclosure ft. Sam Smith – “Latch”
6. Sia – “Chandelier”
7. Calvin Harris – “Summer”
8. Maroon 5 – “Maps”
9. OneRepublic – “Love Runs Out”
10. Demi Lovato ft. Cher Lloyd – “Really Don’t Care”
11. Iggy Azalea ft. Charli XCX – “Fancy”
12. Kongos – “Come With Me Now”
13. Charli XCX – “Boom Clap”
14. Pharrell Williams ft. Miley Cyrus – “Come Get It Bae”
15. Lorde – “Tennis Court”
16. Clean Bandit ft. Jess Glynne – “Rather Be”
17. American Authors – “Believer”
18. Tove Lo – “Habits”
19. Kiesza – “Hideaway”
20. Jason Derulo ft. Snoop Dogg – “Wiggle”

Jmunney’s Revision
1. Chandelier
2. Summer
3. Fancy
4. Come With Me Now
5. Hideaway
6. Latch
7. Stay With Me
8. Come Get It Bae
9. Rather Be
10. Tennis Court
11. Am I Wrong
12. Boom Clap
13. Problem
14. Love Runs Out
15. Really Don’t Care
16. Maps
17. Habits
18. Rude
19. Wiggle
20. Believer

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