Two seriously shite movies.

>Sigh!< Why do I even bother?

Fast & Furious

Sloppy "acting", video game car scenes, lotsa babes in lowcut blouses or braless. It's cool when video games import from movies not the other way around. The car sequences remind me of playing Midnight Club 3, Burnout 3 and Need for Speed : Undercover on the PS2. If they're gonna go for this high-torrent hyper-reality, why not take it a step further and go for the psychedelic hallucinatory, like Speed Racer? Saw this only because the screening time of Legend of the Mask (a Chinese manga film) didn't fit my gf and me's schedule.

Taken

The only thing worthwhile about this is when Liam Neeson tortures the bad guys, there's a kind of mirthful sadistic glee about it. Otherwise, too many coincidences and plot-holes make this a sludgey ride. The fighting sequences also take from Batman Begins' "let's make everything a huge blur" dynamics. Liam's acting chops also go wasted, there's just too much angst. And finally, after all the ordeal, instead of the stupid daughter getting grounded for not heeding her dad's advice, he actually takes her to an audition for a singing career. Fume!

Hot Potatoes : The Best of Devo

This is slightly disappointing. The songs from the first album are terif, "Jocko Homo" and "Mongoloid" with their herky-jerky beats, atonal vocals and minimalist arrangement. In their second and third albums, the sound becomes a bit more refined and not at all that different from other New Wave stuff out there. Still, their covers of "Satisfaction" and "Secret Agent Man" are excellent, and sheds some new light on the actual meaning of the lyrics. The last few songs "Beautiful World" and "Big Mess" are fine, though, but the remix of "Whip It" is a throwaway dance number. Oh and is that Geddy Lee's vocals on "Gates of Steel"?

The Specials : Singles

Another childhood favourite. But this comp is not all that good, the debut's singles are too similar sounding and "Nite Klub" is a pretty dire ska workout. The songs from "More Specials" are also not really convincing forays into psyche, reggae and funk. "Ghost Town" is tops, though, being eerie and melancholic. In any event, it makes me want to check out the rest of the 2-tone roster, such as Selecter, Bad Manners and The English Beat. The icing on the cake here are the Special AKA (a later line-up of the same group) tracks, such as the phenomenal Township Jive "Nelson Mandela" and the loungey novelty "(What I Like Most About You is Your) Girlfriend". One more thing - the PC lyrics are grating, and songs such as "Racist Friend" incurs inverse racism, with images of pakois beating up skinheads.

O Brother, Where are Thou? OST - Got this mainly on MOJO's recommendation. It's kinda underwhelming, there are quite a number of Deep South acapella stuff which doesn't have that much melody except for Ralph Stanley's O Death. There are four versions of "I'm a Man of Constant Sorrow" which aren't nearly as good as Dylan's version.

The Alison Krauss/Gillian Welch/Emmylou Harris songs are only alright, nothing particularly striking. The bluegrass numbers are missing drumbeats or is that the point? There are some fiddle instrumentals which are alright, though I still prefer the sound of violins rather than the less expressionistic fiddle. For an Americana album, the Alejandro Escuvedo tribute album I got got it all beat.