Mamma Mia! (movie)

Managed to watch this over the weekend. Slightly better than "Across the Universe" in treating classic music although not by much. The singing is okay although Brosnan sounds like a constipated cow. The setting on a Greek island is idyllic and ultimately boring.

If there were more sequins and spandex such as the "Donna & The Dynamos" performances, this would have been a whole lot more enjoyable. As it is, there is just too much lingering around doing nothing. The ABBA stuff sounds pretty much like their original arrangements, with only bits of acapella first verse and new guitar solos thrown in here and there. Hey! Why mess with perfection? Only has one song I haven't heard before - Slippin' Through My Fingers. Half expect a line from the classic soap "Lace" - "which one of your bastards is my father?" 4 out of 10.

Grant Morrison's JLA graphic novels.

New World Order - Morrison getting his footing here. Pretty okay start.

Rock of Ages - Already have the first three parts. Didn't realise it would turn into a different corner so aprubtly.

DC One Million - collects the four issues, plus the various tie-ins, with my favourite being the future Batman tale.

Strength in Numbers - lame bit being the Adam Strange tale.

Justice for All - pretty good.

World War III- he wanted to go out with a bang, but this is over-cluttered. Everything AND the kitchen sink.

Earth 2 - i thought these kind of parallel worlds stories reached its zenith with Crisis. Pretty workable tale although the dark mirror equivalents of the JLA aren't sordid or evil enough for my liking. I'm thinking rape and slaughter en masse.

ZZ Top Live in Texas

The stage looks a bit barren. I suppose they haven't been piling up fortunes since there's nary a hit song or album nowadays. I'm disappointed there are no spinning guitars. The sound separation is also a bitch, with only the leads cutting through, otherwise it's a sonic porridge. The older songs do better, less cluttered and busy. On the other hand, the songs from "Eliminator" sound sludgey because of overworked bass amps and guitar amps. "Rough Boy" also sound completely flat without the drum machines. Less than searing first DVD release from the bearded ones and Beard.

Sukiyaki Western Django

Miike's blend of spaghetti Western and feudal Japan samurais. It works pretty much only on an action level, conjuring a Japanese "Silverado" rather than the beautiful visuals of those Italian productions. The plot is reworking of the Yojimbo and Fistful of Dollars plot, though it diverges. The dialogue is entirely in English, and throws up some oddly clumsy sentences and contextually misused idioms - "You're the second person I want to draw iron at", "I'm all at sea, I don't know". Cinematography is excellent. And the obligatory Quentin Tarantino cameo (he's a huge fan of Miike) is workable and funny.

Conspirators of Pleasure

My first Svankmajer, and a silent one at that. First got wind of him on the various film discussions on Music Babble and on George Starostin's other board. It's pretty alright. Jarring and unconventional, the pleasures sought here are solipsistic and inter-connected. Cool bat-chicken-man notwithstanding, I actually enjoyed the short film "Jabberwocky" more, with quirky stop-motion and nice music. The bits where the next-door neighbours torture each other's doppelgangers are at the very least unsettling. The postwoman stuffing bread balls up her nose and ears beggars explanation, though. Comes also with an inappropriate vintage porn opening sequence. Brothers Quay here I come......

Zombies : The Beginning

An interesting attempt to implant the Aliens story over the Lucio Fulci original. Cheesy as hell but also damn entertaining. The lead character, a chubby Asian Ripley, didn't get enough dough to get her kit off. The acting is atrocious but laughably so... The ending with the zombie brain extracting zombie foetuses is a sight to behold, and outdoes Teruo Ishii's nightmarish visions. Gem of a B-movie, replete with stock footage from "Crimson Tide" and a plagiarised soundtrack.

Halo : The Movie

Bit early for an April Fool's joke, isn't it? These are just cut-scenes from Halo, Halo 2 and Halo 3 on the Xbox and 360. Not to say it isn't entertaining, but there are skips in the plot due to the action sequences.

Resident Evil : Degeneration

More CGI movies based on games. The plot starts out promisingly enough, with a planeful of zombies crashing into an airport. It slowly degenerates into a pictorial game, though, with an insanely difficult boss zombie to beat. The plot is nothing to shout about, with the usual bad guys - guy with a British accent, crooked politician, Islamic terrorist. Ho-hum. I actually liked Halo's cut-scenes more than this.

Television - Marquee Moon

Strange how NME reviewers always call this art-punk when there's nothing punk about it. It's all nice winding down music. The title track has some errors on my copy, interrupting a nice instrumental break. I like this... Why is it No. 1 on the Babble Top 100 I'm not sure, though..... Sure, it's nice and all but where is the innovation?

Minutemen - Double Nickels on the Dime

Had this on cassette ages ago. Abrasive punk-funk at its best. Looking back, Primus seems to base its career on developing the riffs here. All that RHCP should be.

PIL - Metal Box

Like this slightly less than Flowers of Romance. Its ambience is a bit like Paris in the Spring although the chanting here is much more hypnotic. Jah Wobble's basslines here are not as good as some of the out-takes on Flowers.

The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society

Still dig the more accessible and catchier tracks - Picture Book and Last of the Steam-Powered Trains. The others take longer to grow on me, but I have the time.

Wire - Pink Flag

Pretty groovy post-punk though I would have preferred better hooks. Got chairs missing? as well, but haven't heard that yet.

The Beach Boys - Love You

This is a strange album. Mostly the hooks and nothing else. Not much melody, just the catchy bits repeated ad infinitum. A nice return to form for Brian, sure, but the tunes are better on his first solo album.

King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King

This is marvellous. Fey, melancholic, complex and completely unlike any prog I've heard. 21st Century Schizoid Man is also no indication of the goodies here. "Confusion will be my Epitaph."

Salo or the 120 days of Sodom

Kinda passe watching this now isn't it? With the type of scat porn and torture porn available over the Net, this feels like an outmoded antiquity that is maybe shocking for its time. All the talk about it being some sort of anti-consumerist propaganda also ring hollow, as the only consumerism involved now are people buying it to see the fuss it caused. Good for being the only film to make naked bodies totally unappealing. I felt a bit grossed-out at the voyeuristic torture ending, but that's only so much. People forget to say that with the shit-eating, pee-drinking, boys and girls trussed like dogs, eye-gouging, this is actually quite a boring movie. Having not read the De Sade book, I can't compare it, but if it's anyting like this, it'll just help me sleep. Did have nightmares about Pasolini's murder, though.

Memories of Murder

Bong Joon-Hu's (The Host) earlier film. This is an immersive study of policemen and criminals. I didn't really understand the rush to get a confession but is that how it goes in Korea? Lots of interesting in-fighting between cops. Genuine perversion abound. And when the prime suspect is unveiled, you'd sympathise with him endlessly due to his pop star looks. In the end, we still dunno who is the killer. The plotting and cinematography is very detailed, drawing you in its world regardlessly.

Screwed

Got this on the pretext this is another "Ichi the Killer". But no, the first half runs along meanderingly enough. Based on Yoshiharu Shiga's adult (but non-hentai) manga "Wind-Up Type", this one is shot on over-exposed film and it positively bleeds yellow, orange and red. Comedic in a bizarre fashion, this is probably the anti-thesis of Lynchian surrealism used to scare people. The second half is aplomb with psychedelic nuances and "Kintaro candy". Brilliant performace by Tadanobu Asano (Ichi, Zaitochi) and the dreamscapes are marvellous, courtesy of Teruo Ishii, which look original and breathtaking, especially the chained funereal band. I will look for The Master of Gen-Ken-San Inn next, from the same purveyors.

Hello again Babblers! I had a long holiday without doing much. Caught these two over the holidays.
The Spirit

Expected a lot from this but it's just a few notches above the exercise in futility that was Sin City. Most of the fault lies in lead actor Gabriel watsisname, lending no conviction to the lines, all delivered in drooping deadpan. To compare him with a plank would be an insult to the plank. Only saving grace is Sam Jackson's OTT performance as the Octopus. The girls aren't that great, Eva Mendes looking good and nothing else besides. Scarlett Johannson as Silken Floss does lend some sizzle but she's underused. I wouldn't really advise anybody bothering with this, and the 1987 TV movie with Sam J. Jones was so much better anyway. What tries to come off as "noir" ends up being plasticky and gimicky and contrived.

Yes Man

Much better than the total pile of dung that was "Fun with Dick and Jane". The cult-ish elements of the "Yes" cult is never really exploited, though. The saving grace is the often witty banter between Carrey and Deschanel. Funniest bit - Carrey singing "Jumper" to a suicide case. Never goes anywhere near Ace Ventura 2, though. That's still my fave Carrey movie.