Music N' More: March 2017

Thursday, March 16, 2017

Mad Max: Fury Road

The newest film in the series

Summary
-After a nuclear apocalypse ravages the Australian Outback, two people must work together to restore order in a world ravaged by barbarians and other gangs

Cast
-Tom Hardy: Mad Max
-Charlize Theron: Furiosa
-Nicholas Hoult: Nux
-Hugh Keays-Byrne: Immortan Joe
-John Helman: Slit
-Nathan Jones: Rictus Erectus
-Zoe Kravitz: Toast the Knowing
-Rose Huntingon-Whitley: The Splendid Angharad
-Riley Keough: Capable
-Abbey Lee: The Dag
-Courtney Eaton: Cheedo the Fragile
-John Howard: The People Eater
-Richard Carter: The Bullet Farmer
-Angus Sampson: The Organic Mechanic
Did You Know?
-Megan Gale, who plays the Valkyrie, became pregnant during production and had to leave, so director George Miller decided to kill her character off
-Near the end, Tom Hardy, who plays Max, displays some facial twitches, squints, eyebrow raises. This is a nod of respect to Mel Gibson, who usually does this to give a crazed look
-The character Immortan Joe only allows his eyes to be seen. No other part of his face is visible due to him wearing a full breathing mask
-Valhalla is the Norse version of heaven. The Valkyries lead the men who die in battle to a beautiful hall, overruled by the Norse god Odin
-Courtney Eaton was in her mid-teens when she was offered a role in the movie. She took on the role of the baby sister
-According to actress Rosie Huntington-Whitley, whenever one of the Wives' clothes would slip, revealing skin, Tom Hardy would do a cartoonish eye-pop to let them know of the incident to be
-Tom Hardy got his nose accidentally broken by Charlize Theron when she elbowed him by mistake
-Charlize Theron shaved her head for the role and had to wear a wig for A Million Ways to Die in the West
-Mel Gibson and Tom Hardy had lunch discussing what it would take to play this role. Mel gave him his blessing
-Quentin Kenihan, who plays Corpus Colossus, is actually disabled in real life. He suffers from osteogenesis imperfecta, which is a bone condition that causes bones to weaken significantly and break easily. The only things done to him were makeup.
-Near the end credits there is a dedication to a person named Lance Allen Moore II, May 24, 1987 - March 10, 2015. He was a fan who died in a motorcycle accident near Silverton, New South Wales, Australia, where Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior was filmed
-The bracelet Mad Max wears actually belongs to Tom Hardy
-John Iles, who played the War Boy The Ace, is a former British SAS soldier who headed the security team on set to ensure safety for all
-Despite the fact that the character Mad Max is Australian, no Australian actor has ever yet played him. Mel Gibson was born in in the US and raised in Australia while Tom Hardy is was born in England
-In the original film script, the character Valkyrie is shown in a cage and nude. Then it was revised to her wearing underwear to prevent higher ratings in other countries

Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome

This is the third movie of the series

Summary
-Bartertown is a city in the desert that has managed to retain technology if no civilization existed. Max is robbed of supplies and seeks shelter there in a dystopian future where barbarians hold what is left when the machines finally break down

Cast
-Mel Gibson: Mad Max
-Bruce Spence: Jedediah
-Adam Cockburn: Jedediah Jr
-Tina Turner: Aunty Entity
-Frank Thring: The Collector
-Angelo Rossitto: The Master
-Paul Larsson: The Blaster
-Angry Anderson: Ironbar
-George Spartels: Blackfinger
-Edwin Hodgeman: Dr. Dealgood
-Andrew Oh: Ton Ton Tattoo

Did You Know?
-Producer Byron Kennedy was killed in a helicopter crash during production. The movie is dedicated to him and director George Miller lost interest in the film because of that. George Ogilvie took over directing
-If you look closely, the pupil in Max's left eye is permanently dilated, referencing Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, when he suffers a severe injury to his left eye
-The director of casting went through Australian schools looking for 60 kids, ranging in age from 20 months old to 16 years old
-The pigs used in the movie were on loan from a pig farmer
-Tina Turner had to shave her head completely bald just to fit her wig
-Tina Turner, who plays Aunty Entity, wore a steel dress that weighed more than 121 pounds

Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior

Here is the second movie of this series.

Summary
-A former policeman living in the dystopian future Australian outback helps a desert community of survivors in an abandoned gas refinery fend off attacks from marauding warriors

Cast
-Mel Gibson: Max
-Bruce Spence: The Gyro Captain
-Michael Preston: Pappagallo
-Max Phipps: Toadie
-Vernon Wells: Wez
-Kjell Nilsson: Humungus
-Emil Minty: Feral Kid
-Virginia Hey: Warrior Woman
-William Zappa: Zetta

Did You Know?
-The dog used in the film was taken from a local shelter. But because of the noise upsetting him, it resulted in him relieving himself in the car by mistake. After filming ended, one of the camera operators adopted him
-There are reasons for his mismatched clothing. The right sleeve of his jacket is missing, referencing his right arm being run over in Mad Max and medics would have simply cut off the sleeve than pull it over his injured arm. His squeaky leg brace came from getting shot through the kneecap in the first film. The harness with things hanging off of it is for working on his Interceptor, the first two fingers of his gloves missing allows for easier removal/insertion of shotgun shells
-The costumes for the movie were assembled from various items found in junk shops, second hand clothing stores, S&M shops, sporting goods stores
-Despite the fact it took place in Australia, it was extremely cold. Mel Gibson huddled under blankets between takes despite wearing heavy leather while the people playing the marauders suffered greatly in particular because their costumes exposed a lot of skin, especially their backsides
-The character Humungus has a pistol with an ornate skull and crossbones design. It is said that it resembles a Totenkopf, a "Death's Head" design, a symbol associated with the Nazi SS
-On the vertical stabilizer is a nude woman. It's Karen Price, the January 1981 Playboy model
-Queen guitarist Brian May composed the music for this film as well, but not Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome. Maurice Jarre composed the music there
-Max's dog is an Australian cattle dog
-The Feral Kid was based on Vietnamese orphans on the streets of Saigon
-Mel Gibson was forced to wear sticky makeup that made him look bruised and bloodied for weeks
-Mel Gibson taught Emil Minty, who plays the Feral Kid, how to throw a boomerang and head butt people without hurting them
-The character Humungus was supposed to be Max's partner Jim Goose originally. Production was against this, but there are a few nods here and there to that, including burns behind his hockey mask, his use of a police vehicle and his use of a weapon similar to the MFP's police force

Fifty Shades Darker

This is the second installment to the Fifty Shades series

Summary
-After the breakup of Fifty Shades of Grey, Christian and Ana try and restart their relationship, on a more simple level. Ana teaches Christian how to uphold a more normal relationship. As things between them improve, Christian's past starts haunting him, in cases such as one of his old submissives, named Leila, stalking him and Ana, and Elena, the woman who introduced Christian to the S&M lifestyle, trying to put distance between Christian and Ana

Cast
-Dakota Johnson: Anastasia "Ana" Steele
-Jamie Dornan: Christian Grey
-Eric Johnson: Jack Hyde
-Eloise Mumford: Kate Kavanaugh
-Bella Heathcote: Leila
-Rita Ora: Mia Grey
-Luke Grimes: Elliot Grey
-Victor Rasuk: Jose
-Max Martini: Taylor
-Bruce Altman: Jerry Roach
-Kim Basinger: Elena Lincoln
-Marcia Gay Harden: Grace Trevelyan-Grey
-Andrew Airlie: Carrick Grey

Did You Know?
-There is a case of "define irony". During the last scene, where Jack is looking over the Grey house, smoking a cigarette, he takes the cigarette and burns out Christian's face in the photo of the Grey family. It is said in the books that Christian was burned with cigarettes by his mother's pimp, which explains the cigarette burns on his chest
-The dress Ana is wearing to the art exhibit is the same dress she wore in Fifty Shades of Grey to discuss the contract with Christian
-When Christian shows Ana his room at the Grey house, there is a UFC poster seen on the wall. It was thought that it would give Christian a more masculine image if it were shown that he was into mixed martial arts
-Jamie Dornan mentioned he worked out extra hard for this movie. He was able to put on more muscle weight so he could look more intimidating
-It was decided that, since clean-shaven Christian Grey was not good enough, Jamie Dornan was allowed to grow his facial hair, to make him more appealing to the ladies
-Ana references the 1988 film Working Girl, a few lines used by Melanie Griffith. She says "I expect you to call me Ana. I don't expect you to fetch me coffee unless you're getting some for yourself, and um, the rest we'll just make up as we go along"

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

True Crime: New York City

This game is fun, but definitely aimed at an older audience because of the very mature situations dealt with in this game

Summary
-You are Marcus Reed, a former gangbanger turned police officer, whose dad is Isiah "The King" Reed. After being given the chance to change his life and leave his gangbanging ways behind him, Marcus joins the police academy and becomes a cop, with the help of PDNY detective Terry Higgins. After becoming a cop, he manages to become a beat cop in the Organized Crime Unit. You soon come into contact with an eccentric FBI agent named Gabriel Whitting, who is looking into rumors of there being a mole in OCU and somehow that mole having connections to four major organized crime factions in the city

Gameplay
-There are four different chapters to do missions in this game. In order to move on, you must solve the missions in each case
-The Magdelena Cartel
-The Shadow Tong
-The Presidents Club
-The Palermo Mob

-The Magdelena Cartel takes you to the neighborhood of Spanish Harlem, investigating a cartel moving cocaine, ecstasy and other narcotics into poorer neighborhoods. The case ends with you taking down the head, Teresa Castillo, at the Opera House in the theatre district. She's aboard a wooden boat on the opera stage and you must shoot it to arrest her

-The Palermo Mob is your typical Mafia case. You go from talking to a high ranking mobster in Little Italy, to taking down a funeral director in Washington Heights to taking down a mob boss' contactor son on top of a construction boom crane

-The Presidents Club is the name of a club of drug dealers using names of presidents. They are pushing a new drug called "Pop" on to the streets. The mysterious leader of this "club" is a rapper/music producer named Lionel, and to solve this case, you must fight him in hand to hand combat in a Zen garden on top of the building housing his studio

-The Shadow Tong is a pretty tough case. You go to Chinatown to talk to a store owner, then try and rescue the sister of an up and coming Chinese Tong member named Leeland Shen. You discover he is smuggling Chinese immigrants in and forcing them to work in sweatshops

-The layout is pretty typical of any open world game. You can drive around, shoot guns, talk to people, etc. But in this game, you can do more. You can frisk people and if they have contraband, you can either arrest them or bribe them. You can do side missions which include seeking information from confidential informants (in this game, the three informants are The King, who happens to be Marcus' father, the Madam, who runs a high class prostitution service, and Freddie, a gypsy Middle Eastern cab driver)

-This game is very similar to True Crime: Streets of LA in the sense that you can solve street crimes, you can enter buildings, you can also use public transportation to get around, which in this games' case is taxis and the subway system. There is also the "Good Cop/Bad Cop" point system in here. The end of the game depends on what you do. If you get too many Bad Cop points, the police will consider you to have "gone rogue" and they will attack you. If you do the Good Cop and get a lot of good points, all is well

-Here you can enter buildings and frisk people for contraband. To get good cop points, arrest the people, but to get bad cop points, you can frame innocent people by planting evidence. You can enter buildings and do all sorts of stuff. To gain lost health, you can visit pharmacies, stop by hot dog or food stands, delis, clothing stores where you can buy new clothes, barber shops to get new haircuts, dojos to pick up new skills and weapons, music stores to pick up new music for the in-game soundtrack, gun stores to pick up new weapons

-When driving, the police dispatch will let you know about crimes occurring. You must solve a set number of crimes in each neighborhood before it is considered "clean". When you look at the map and hover over it with the pointer, it will either be red, meaning and saying that the crime level is extremely high, orange, meaning and saying the crime level is medium, yellow, meaning and saying the crime level is low or green, meaning and saying that that neighborhood is clean. To clean up the neighborhood, solve crimes, frisk suspicious-looking civilians. If nothing is done about the crimes, the crime rate will go up, stores will close, the streets will be dirty, more random crimes will occur and the civilians will become extremely aggressive

-You can also move up the ranks of being a police officer. You can go to the police precinct (marked by a very large badge in Midtown) and enter the police department to turn in contraband and get paid. There are two ways of making money in here-legitimate and illegitimate. The "legit" way of making money is doing your job-stopping crime, frisking suspicious-looking civilians and turning in contraband. The "illegitimate" way of doing it is shaking down store owners, bribing people and in all senses of the word, breaking the law

Dog's Life

This game combines two great things-video games and dogs!! I mean, who doesn't love dogs??

Summary
-You play as Jake, a beagle living in the small fictional city of Clarksville. One day, he witnesses a dog he has a crush on, a Labrador Retriever named Daisy, being kidnapped. You must then play doggy detective and investigate the kidnapping. Along the way, you can hear snippets of conversations between the two kidnappers, Dwayne and Wayne. It's discovered that Miss Peaches, head of a cat food company called Miss Peaches Crunchy Cat Food, is arranging for dogs to be kidnapped, brought to her factory and turned into cat food

Gameplay
-In this game, you get to meet and interact with over 15 different breeds of dog, who you can control after doing a minigame. Each breed of dog has its own specific talents and areas of expertise. (i.e. need to run fast? Get a German Shepherd or a Greyhound. Need to climb mountains or steep hills? Get a St. Bernard, a Bernese Mountain Dog or an Alaskan Husky)

-The three major areas in this game are Clarksville, Lake Minniwahwah and Boom City. Each of these area have smaller areas inside them and there are humans that you can aid in exchange for bones.

-You can also use "Smellovision", seeing in the black and white vision common to dogs. If you pick up all the scents, you can win bones, challenge other dogs, etc. These challenges include time races, trials where you have to copy the moves the other dog does, urinating in certain spots to mark territory, tug of war games

-Once you beat the challenges offered by these dogs, you can control them for a limited time. If you run out of time, no matter. Just find the dog and bark to control them once more. In some missions, you will need the local dog in that area to finish it

Monday, March 6, 2017

WE'RE GOING TO SEE DEEP PURPLE AND ALICE COOPER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Over the weekend, my sister looked into tickets for the Deep Purple/Alice Cooper concert that is set to take place at the Riverbend Music Center here in Cincinnati, OH in September. There were still a lot of tickets left, which is shocking considering the acts playing there that night. It's on Sept. 10 and of all tickets that we managed to snag, we got pit seats. At Riverbend, there is an area right in front of the stage called the pit seats. WE HAVE PIT SEATS!! My sister is going to blow a blood vessel being that close to Alice Cooper. She is a huge fan!!!! The looks on her face when he sings "Feed My Frankenstein" is going to be priceless. Not only that, it's Deep Purple!! I CAN'T WAIT!! My sister bought the tickets, which were $195. I know that sounds like a lot of money and it is. But, I paid my sister back for my ticket and I figure it this way-how many times are we going to get to see these guys before they stop touring??? Probably none after this, lol!!