Currently listening to - Duke Ellington - Take The "A" Train
Porter Project - Night And Day
Digging The Porter Project. Chill-out versions of Cole Porter tunes. Good listening.
Little bit more fun chat session tonight, kiddies. Feels good to not be pissed off. Really feeling the rage the other night. Gonna share some of my patented positive reviews. The kind that people hate to see, the "it wasn't THAT bad" type of review. So sue me. I know what I like...
Constantine - Keanu as a pissed-off demon hunter trying to buy his way into heaven. Pretty decent effects, Keanu playing the same part he's played for years....with lung cancer, some characters that could have used more fleshing out but that's just about every comic movie these days. Refreshing change of pace not spending half the movie introducing the character but a little confusing playing catch-up along the way. I was never big into the Vertigo line of comics so I never read Hellblazer. Probably a good thing cause I ended up enjoying this quite a bit.
The Order - Heath Ledger as....a pissed-off demon hunter who ends up sending people on their way to heaven via a loophole in I assume Catholic dogma. Really kinda mindless, a little pointless cause you can see the ending and the main antagonist coming a mile away, but fun to watch Peter Weller playing the over-the-top bad guy for once.
Appleseed - The new version, which contains no demons, catholics or cel-based animation. This time it's a love story wrapped in a bit of a cautionary tale. The cgi is absolutely astounding, in places looking like traditional cel-based animation, both good and bad. The story is pretty good but the star is the animation. I didn't listen to the English dub so I can't comment on it but the Japanese was crystal clear and the English subtitles told a clear story so I can't really complain. No inexplicable Engrish that I could see. Good stuff.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Tim Burton is a mad genius. The movie was much better than I expected. The children fit their parts almost perfectly, the scenery was dead-on. The Oompa-Loompa(s) and the song sequences were out of this world. Even the little tweaks he made weren't distracting, in fact the small violent change to Mike Teevee was an eerie reminder of our times. The only complaint I have in the movie was Johnny Depp's Wonka. Sure he was creepy and out there but he seemed just a little too stiff. Not enough to detract from the wonderful job Burton and company did on it. Definitely not a kid's movie tho. But whadda ya want? It's Tim freaking Burton.
Last but not least a short review of Dream Theater's newest.
Dream Theater - Octavarium - Still rockin after all these years, their newer efforts seem to have taken a more political and religious bent and this one is no different. They still have the same rocking and theatrical style but the themes have changed a bit since 9/11. Better than their last album, IMO.
Well that was longer than I had wanted to go. Oh well. It's my blog, I'll do what I want to.
Till next time....
Currently listening to - Guns 'n Roses - Sweet Child 'o Mine
