Thrak Attack

  Welcome back to Thrak Attack! What's your adventure? Today, on Music Monday, we explore the days of classic rock where "sure you can put flute into a rock song! It won't sound weird at all" and it won't because Ian Anderson and Jethro Tull make it sound like the flute belongs in rock music! So let's get into the review of the "The Zealot Gene" by Jethro Tull! First of all, I'm not the biggest fan of Jethro Tull but I have listened to them in the past. They're a strange band that love to write songs about odd things and make big long sweeping songs with flute solos in them. Now this all works because everyone is so talented! Especially Ian Anderson who sings, writes, and plays the flute.  The Zealot Gene is their newest album and I was surprised to see that they were going to release an album this year! I didn't think that they were still around as a group and making music. This album is solid though with songs like "Mrs. Tibbets...

  Welcome back to Thrak Attack! What's your adventure? Today's adventure takes us deep into the walls and underneath the ground to the land of Fraggle Rock. But this isn't the first time we've been here, we remember this place from long ago and it's time to go back. A reboot of a series that ended in 1987 is just what Apple TV+ needs right? Let's find out! Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock has 13 episodes in it's first season and it's just as charming as you remember. The muppets look as good as ever, the characters a charming, and the world building in this show is actually quite good! Each episode has a fun adventure with a pretty solid through line of exploring "outer space" which is just our world. There are some pretty great jokes that go along with this too. In the pilot episode one of the characters gets attacked by a dog, when telling his friends about it he says "I was attacked by the most vicious space monster" and it cuts to t...

  Welcome back to Thrak Attack, what's your adventure? Today's adventure takes us to the many iconic places from our childhoods if every show from our childhood was about tennis. From the Krusty Krab, to the Sewers of New York City, to the sandlot where we eat Jollie Ollie Ice Cream. Nickelodeon Extreme Tennis is the next iteration of Nickelodeon's attempt to become like the Super Mario Franchise. Let's see if it worked! Nickelodeon Extreme Tennis is available on Apple Arcade so I played it on my iPad but I think it would be better off on my phone. Some of the controls seemed a little weird to be played on touch screen but oddly enough that was only during the tutorial. The game's tutorial made me think this game had terrible controls but in actual matches it actually feels pretty good! Nickelodeon over the past few years has been attempting to create a series of video games that replicate Nintendo's approach to family fun gaming. There's a Mario kart clone,...

  Welcome back to Thrak Attack! What's your adventure? Todays adventure takes us to 1938 Europe on the brink of World War II. Two friends who graduated Oxford together have gone their separate ways. One is from Germany and lives in London to gain information. The other is the secretary for the Prime Minister in London. Sounds like a fast paced action film right? If you said yes you would be wrong. In such a tense time in history, this movie does a great job at creating suspense but doesn't fully deliver on the payoff of all that suspense. With a 131 minute run time with the first half of the movie spoken in whispers, it creates the suspense but the loud parts of the film aren't the resolutions. There are a few blow ups between the characters which do act as huge plot points, like one of the flashbacks at the pub in Germany, but that develops characters and not the story. I know this film is based on a novel called "Munich" by Robert Harris and I bet the pacing of ...

  Welcome back to Thrak Attack, what's your adventure? Today's adventure takes us to the backyard of Keb' Mo' with all of his friends and family finally back together again for a long pandemic. In his 19th studio album, it's all about making the best of life and celebrating the little things. It's a great album that I found extremely important for the time that we are in. The theme of this album is perfection. It starts off with the title track "Good to Be..." which is a song about being happy and content with being back with the people and places you love. It's a fitting album for 2022 after so many of us were unable to see a lot of our friends and family. The album continues to send warm vibes with "So Easy" and "Sunny and Warm" but it's the "Medicine Man" that reminds why we are celebrating being together and a reminder to stay healthy and safe. It sort of feels a little too on the head but still makes an impres...

  Welcome back to Thrak Attack, what's your adventure? Todays adventure takes us to the early 2000's where screaming rock music and metal were all the rage. Underoath was always a quiet favorite among fans, never to be in the full spotlight but never pushed aside. The band is under appreciated though, especially with their 9th studio album "Voyeurist".  It's only been 4 years since Underoath's last album and I thought it was a lot longer. Fortunately that amount of time really allowed the band to breath and take their time with this music and it shows. The album is very well paced and even though it feels like a fast and in your face style there is a lot of nuance to it. There are a lot of great songs if you take the time to listen.  There are so many of these tracks that made it onto the 2022 playlist including "Hallelujah", "(No Oasis)"and "Numb" but there is so much to like here that if you're into this style you'll rea...

  Welcome back to Thrak Attack, what's your adventure? Today's adventure takes us to the amazon rainforest on a quest for a crystal to change humans into monsters and monsters into humans. In the 4th installment of this weirdly long running series that is the plot! Does it make sense? Is it enjoyable to watch? Are there some redeeming qualities to this series that went from theater releases to straight to streaming? We shall see. Like I said before this is the fourth installment to the Hotel Transylvania series and I did not realize it was successful enough to make a fourth one. However, the first three were theatrical releases and this time around it was released only on Amazon Prime. Due to this, Adam Sandler is no longer the voice of the lead character Dracula but instead goes to Brian Hull who has mainly done voice acting for the Pup Star series, Tangled: the Series, and a Hotel Transylvania short film.  There is something going for this movie though mainly that the cast i...