Mother

Great movies come from Korea and when they get a wide release in America its a fairly safe bet that they are going to be awesome. Mother is Joon-ho Bong's latest effort and its quite an improvement over his earlier films like Memories of Murder and The Host, both of which I enjoyed. There is a dark humor here that reminds me a bit of the Cohen brothers like in Fargo and A Serious Man. There are a lot of laughs but most of them come from the quirkiness of the characters rather than gags. The pacing really helps move this two hour murder mystery along with plenty of plot twists, beautiful cinematography and great acting across the board. Hye-ja Kim in particular is wonderful as the worlds most neurotic mom. There is very little here to criticize Mother is a solid film from start to finish and deserves your money.
9.3/10

The Darth Bane Trilogy

Sure the final installment of the Darth Bane trilogy is the first book I have finished this year but you know what? Nothing else out there has Sith Lords frying folks with force lightning or rooms of people clawing their eyes out due to Sith sorcery. Nothing. Its so wonderful to fall in love with Star Wars again, though I find that happens at least once a month for me. I can't think of a better Star Wars series. While not the highest of praise these are the most accessible books next to the Tales series e.g. Bounty Hunters, Empire and Cantina due to the fact that they require only the movies as a prerequisite. If you find yourself bored why not give these guys a spin you can kill all 3 in less than a month and enjoy some quality Star Wars fun.

R.I.P Jun Seba (Nujabes)

Do you remember a time in your life when you heard or saw something that changed your life forever for the better? A moment when you were exposed to something beautiful and new and there was no turning back? I will always remember being 18 sitting alone at home when this crazy Japanese cartoon called Samurai Champloo came on. I had never seen anything so freaking cool in my life but more importantly was the music. I'm going to go ahead and say it, Jun Seba is to Samurai Champloo was John Williams is to Star Wars without their music things are just not the same. I can't even begin to guess how many times his music has highlighted my life whether it be on a walk, at a party or just relaxing with friends. For the last 5 years Nujabes has been with me though all the hard times and the best of times, his music was the music of my life and I know I will never hear anything as unique again. I'm truly heart broken. Jun Seba left us on February 26th as the result of a fatal car crash his death has just been recently reported in America.

Meatball Machine

Take a good look at that picture. Surely you understand that no words can better describe Meatball Machine than that picture. Funny enough the first half of this movie has a pretty decent story to support the hyper violent gore. Unfortunately but not unexpectedly it bleeds out too soon leaving the final conflict a boring and poorly edited mess. We never wanted much from you Meatball Machine just some mutilated flesh and on that promise, you delivered.
6.7/10
Makeup effects and puppet fans need only apply