Release date: July 24, 2015

Opening weekend revenue: $16,701,294

Lifetime gross: $51,289,443

IMDb rating: 7.7/10

Personal rating: 6.3/10

Undefeated professional boxer Billy Hope (Jake Gyllenhaal) is 43-0. His offensive, sometimes reckless, boxing style has done him well in his perfect boxing career. His wife Maureen (Rachel McAdams) is tragically killed in a brawl between Hope, the trash talking, title-hungry boxer Miguel “Magic” Escobar and their entourage.

After going into a harsh, depressed downward spiral, Hope ends up losing custody of his child Leila (Oona Laurence). Rejected by society and his own kin, Hope is forced to start his career over again with an underground trainer named Tick Willis (Forest Whitaker) to try and defeat the current champion Escobar and avenge his wife’s untimely death.

A 6.3/10 rating is a very generous one. If  I were to rename the movie, it would be “Southpaw: the Great Disappointment.”

From the opening scene to the final credits, “Southpaw” was an enormous let down.

After Gyllenhaal’s performance in “Nightcrawler” I had high expectations for him in this follow-up film.

Gyllenhaal was not this film’s undoing. He gave a good performance for the script he was given. The issue was the poor writing and lack of connection with the characters.

There is a conversation where Hope finally gets Willis to train him. In which Willis tells Hope to be at the gym the next day, and Hope asks him “To train?” and Willis replies “No, to bake cookies.” That was one of the most pathetic, predictable, and in all honesty laughable lines I have heard out of a movie in a while.

The scene where Hope’s wife dies is an awful one. It consisted of McAdams’ poor ability to portray someone who is dying along with Gyllenhaal’s repetitive chant of saying “baby” over and over again.  

Willis is thrown into the movie way too late to be as important as a character as he is. Not only that, but the lack of background knowledge makes it hard for any viewer to feel emotionally connected to him.

Save your money, do not go to the theaters to see this movie. Stay at home, and wait to see it on TV when it plays over and over again.

Tyler Joseph and Joshua Dun make up the band, Twenty One Pilots, which can be described by one word: artistic.

The two band members do things a little differently in regards to music and shows; for example, wearing a ski mask while performing as a way to symbolize the removal of the wall in between who we really are and who we portray ourselves to be.

Joseph and Dun refer to their fans as a clique and focus heavily on the needs of their fan base. The duo even went as far as changing their classic, thick line symbol to a thin line, text version because their fans used the text version in their biographies on social media.

Keeping the clique in higher spirits, Twenty One Pilots realizes the impact they can have on the lives of those listening. Joseph writes lyrics which discuss conquering anxiety and depression.

The band has worked on keeping listeners alive and happy since 2009 where Joseph formed a band with Nick Thomas and Chris Salih in Columbus. Salih and Thomas eventually left because of their busy schedules in 2011, which lead Joseph to find current drummer, Dun.

Self­-titled album, “Twenty One Pilots,” was released in 2009 and is the only project Salih and Thomas worked on. The album was independently released and introduces Joseph’s powerful songwriting abilities.

“You like to sleep alone. It’s colder than you know because your skin is so used to colder bones. It’s warmer in the morning than what it is at night. Your bones are held together by your nightmares and your frights,” Joseph wrote in “The Pantaloon.”

These lyrics emphasis the need to address a problem rather than continue to ignore it and allow room for the issue to grow and become worse.

The second album released ceased availability. Titled, “Regional at Best,” the album made an appearance in 2011. “Regional at Best” is commonly known amongst longtime, more dedicated fans because a copy of the album is difficult to find or listen to.

Although “Regional at Best” is hidden among the other albums produced, the songs on the album are the rough drafts of what would soon be remastered and put onto their third album, “Vessel.” A popular song, “Kitchen Sink” was not remastered and features Joseph’s brother, Zack.

“Vessel” was released in 2013 and is the band’s first produced album through a record label, Fueled by Ramen. The label helped the success of Twenty One Pilots expand, but the band remained the same as they were before signing with Fueled by Ramen.

A favored and powerful song on “Vessel” is “Holding on to You.” In this song, Joseph sings of taking control of the demons inside and removing the pain rather than letting the problems take over.

Joseph writes, “Fight it. Take the pain; ignite it. Tie a noose around your mind loose enough to breathe fine and tie it to a tree and tell it, ‘You belong to me. This ain’t a noose. This is lease, and I have news for you: you must obey me.’”

The band is also working on a new album titled, “Blurryface,” which is rumored to explore the darker side of Joseph and Dun. A single, “Fairly Local,” was released recently with the album set to release on May 19.

Following the release of their single, Joseph tweeted, “If you think you know what is coming after hearing one song, nope.”

Twenty One Pilots will start their world tour following the release of “Blurryface” and will play at the Schottenstein Center in Columbus on Sept. 18.

Detective Somerset (Morgan Freeman) is a veteran detective in a city thats name is never revealed. A young rookie, Detective Mills (Brad Pitt), comes to the force ready for a big case.  He gets what he wants when the department gives him and Somerset a murder case. The victim is a very large man who is found with empty food containers all around him in a very messy room. He is bound to a chair and appears as if he was being forced to eat when a kick to his torso burst his stomach. While Somerset investigates that, Mills is given another murder case of defense attorney Eli Gould. To Mills’ surprise, the word “greed” is written in Gould’s blood on the floor. When looking behind the refrigerator in the first case, Somerset finds the word “gluttony” written in grease. He then theorizes that the murderer is basing his murders on the seven deadly sins and the killer has five more to go. It is up to Mills and Somerset to track down these mens’ killers before anymore lives are lost.

The reason I was such a big fan of “Se7en” is because of how dark it is. A movie about murders and the seven deadly sins should not be anything but dark. I feel this movie captured that theme perfectly.

Many thrillers are scared to go to the extremes that this movie did. The writer, Andrew Kevin Walker, and the director, David Fincher, had no fear of being too graphic or too disturbing. They perfectly portrayed the horror and gruesomeness of murder.

Walker is used to writing horror themed movies. He wrote “Sleepy Hollow” in 1999, an Oscar winning movie directed by Tim Burton.

Fincher finds his favorite actor to use in the 90s Brad Pitt in this movie. He later brings him back for a lead role in his 1999 film “Fight Club.”

“Seven” is number 23 on IMDb’s top 250 list.

By Lane Hedler

Rapper and Superstar Kanye West collaborated with Adidas Originals to present Fall/Winter 2015 clothing collection for New York Fashion Week.

The collection consisted of a mixture of womens wear and menswear and overall contained 50 looks. Conceptually, the collection was anchored in a military “vibe” presenting army-green and camouflage clothing pieces and accessory. The models wore full body suits that clung to their skin and we matched to the models skin tone. Models wore singular pieces of clothing over these full-body stockings.          The speculated purpose of the mixture of a garment with a body suit is that the piece of clothing was standing alone and therefore able to be admired as a single art piece.

The models casted in this show were perfect for what West presented in the clothing. The models deviated from the norm. They had unique features which made them more memorable say if West had used the typical “model type.” It was refreshing to see that the models understood the artistic direction West was trying to achieve.

Upon first viewing of the dull collection on style.com, something seemed wrong and this was frustrating because there seemed to be not immediate cause to my dissatisfaction. Upon further review, I can now clearly understand the reasons behind my uneasiness.

It seems strange and unfair that West was collaborating with Adidas Originals yet his fashion show contained no sign of an Adidas logo and the clothes presented in this particular fashion show had no correlation with Adidas typical style. If Adidas was collaborating with West for attention then this fashion show was a success in that aspect, but if Adidas was trying to sell clothes, this fashion show was a failure. The only positive advertising for Adidas that has happened is that teens are posting some of the models in West’s designs on social media.

I did audibly saw “wow!” at some of the looks, and I do think that collection was creative and artistic, but what frustrates me is that no new trends were presented. West only seemed to copy from past seasons and past designs. The fashion was relevant for that moment, but the lasting ‘trendiness” and longevity of the collect remains to be seen.

What is sad, though, is West’s self-centered and narcissistic personality seemed to take over this show and make the models and more importantly the clothes disappear. The clothes became a backdrop to West’s performance. Maybe that was intention to create an army of fashionable young people and stand before them as a commander. West’s attempt is very commendable, and I can respect the fact that he is experimenting in many art forms. His personal style is very obvious and it drives the creative direction of the collection. I do see West as an artist but I think he lives to much in the sphere of fame rather than living in the art world, while this might not be seriously damaging, its affects can be seen in the visual art that he presents. West not only needs a slice of “humble pie” but he needs to be able to notice when he is casting a shadow over his art, a shadow caused by his need attention and the need to further his fame.

When I first thought if my opinion on this collection would change if it was designed by someone else I was torn but now I am confident when I saw I would like it better. If his performance was removed and the shadow of this fame and huge ego was lifted, I would say that the fashion was refreshing compared to the usual “Up-tight-ness” of global fashion weeks.

I encourage West to experiment more in fashion because he has created a great start and I also encourage him to leave his ego at home.