Review: This is the End (2013)

I’m pretty sure everyone has their own vision of how the world is going to end. Biblical Apocalypse? Nuclear war? Hit of a meteor? No matter how, the way of surviving it in ‘This is the End’ is by far the best I’ve seen on-screen.

The concept of the movie is rather simple - have a bunch of celebrities fighting for their life during the Apocalypse. It starts off rather inconspicuously - Jay Baruchel and Seth Rogen after spending a day on smoking weed and playing video games head to party at James Franco’s new mansion. There are way too many cameos to include all of them in this review, but the most memorable ones are definitely Emma Watson (you need to see Hermione with an axe), Danny McBride and Michael Cera. However, they are mere additions to the main course of ‘Pineapple Express’-like buddy comedy featuring Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel, James Franco, Jonah Hill and Craig Robinson.

I wouldn’t say the plot is non-existent, but it certainly isn’t developed enough to pay much attention to it. The movie is rather a collection of gags with typical American humor, which is exactly what you would expect from anything created by the duo Seth Rogen-Evan Goldberg. But what’s more, it is fairly obvious that the whole crew had so much fun making this movie. Be it playing soccer with a severed head, fighting over a Milky Way or filming the sequel to ‘Pineapple Express’ (hands down my favorite part of the movie) - it all seems to be pure fun to these guys. And it’s amazing, because this atmosphere of good fun is passed to the audience. Plus it’s nice to see big Hollywood names not taking themselves too seriously.

‘This is the End’ contains a fair amount of satire on the posh world of show-business. It also has a very simple, yet not so dumb message. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying it’s anything overly ambitious or a piece of art that would leave you thinking about your life or state of the world. However, it makes the movie a bit better. That’s always a good thing, right?

Overall, it’s a very fun watch, especially if you have some friends and beer with you. It’s simple - if you liked previous movies by Rogen-Goldberg, you’re going to fall in love with this one. If you didn’t - well, it’s still worth a try.

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Review: Korn - The Paradigm Shift (2013)

Korn haven’t been easy on their fans for a long time now. Not having released anything satisfactory since 2003’s ‘Take a Look in the Mirror’, experiencing many line-up problems, trying to get back the old-school fans (awful ‘III - Remember Who You Are’) and even flirting with dubstep producers (even worse ‘The Path of Totality’). But finally they decided to give fans what they really wanted - Head. I don’t know how Brian Welch feels about being perceived as the savior of the band (but considering his conversion I can assume he doesn’t mind). And I don’t know whether having him back in the band is truly an artistic decision or simply a desperate act that’s supposed to convince the fans that Korn are not just a bunch of burnt out rockstars.

Head definitely exaggerated saying that the album would be a combination of ‘Issues’ and ‘Untouchables’, but it is fairly easy to notice that the band finally attempted to focus on writing decent songs than coming up with some crazy theme for the album, as it was with their three previous records. It’s definitely more similar to what the band used to do with Head in early 2000s, so maybe there’s the impact of Welch. Polished, groovy riffs meet Davis’ wailing voice in sometimes overly melodic choruses. Unfortunately, it is nowhere near as fresh-sounding and well-executed as it was in late 90s-early 00s. The songs are hardly memorable and when listening to them I sometimes had the impression that I’d already heard the very same riff on the record. I think repetitiveness is the main issue here. I could barely distinguish the songs from each other and it’s something the band have been struggling with for a long time. Experimenting with different genres didn’t really conceal that. The tracks are better than what we've been getting from Korn for many eyars, but it's still far from what they're capable of. 'The Paradigm Shift' is simply forgettable, not painful.

I’ve always considered Jonathan Davis as an extraordinarily good singer, but his lyrics have basically stayed the same since the very beginning of the band. A 42 year old guy singing teen angst anthems. It reminds me of Max Cavalera who has used approximately 50 words overall in his lyrics since leaving Sepultura. Korn have always been one of those overly emotional bands, but someone should tell Jonathan that the fans have had enough (sorry for speaking for all of them, but I’m certain I’m not alone in this opinion).

Was I disappointed with this record? Yes. But what I surprised about it? Certainly not. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been a fan if theirs for many years but I really hate it that I can’t enjoy their new stuff. Big hopes for this one, but it turns out that even Head’s grand comeback cannot save this band from mediocrity.

Tracklist:

1. "Prey for Me" - 3:37
2. "Love & Meth" - 4:03
3. "What We Do" - 4:06
4. "Spike in My Veins" - 4:24
5. "Mass Hysteria" - 4:04
6. "Paranoid and Aroused" - 3:34
7. "Never Never" - 3:41
8. "Punishment Time" - 4:00
9. "Lullaby for a Sadist" - 4:18
10. "Victimized" - 4:00
11. "It's All Wrong" - 3:31

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