Tag: review

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Pain and Gain

About halfway through this film you start thinking that these people can’t be this stupid, then the film freezes and it says:

Remember, this is still a true story.

Well, in reality, in reality it’s a film based on a true story with a number of things changed just to make it more of a film. See the Wikipedia page.

Also, you get to the end of the film and it comes up with Michael Bay and you realise what you’ve just seen.

I felt sad that society has bred thick people who believe it is their RIGHT to have money and be famous. This film is a commentary on the state of society given the modern age of the X-Factor and get-rich-quick. People, you need to understand you have rights to nothing. You have to earn everything you want. You don’t deserve anything until you have put the effort in. Hmmm, think my morality drifted a bit there, whoops!

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Elysium

Look, the film was ok. I think the fact that I am now approaching a good number of years on this Earth means that I have seen lots of Sci-Fi themes covered in movies before. This film didn’t say anything new. I guess that, in terms of entertainment, it did its job. I was entertained for a couple of hours. In terms of meaning and interpretation there are other films that do the job much better.

The space station was STUNNINGLY BEAUTIFUL.

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The Lone Ranger

It, was, ok.

That’s pretty much it.

Oh, it had spectacular, implausible action, ugly cowboys, silver and greed. But it was still, just a little bit, ok.

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2 Guns

So, this is what I like about films, or rather, what a film needs for me to like it. Sympathetic Characters. It’s not that hard is it? To hook me in to a story I need a person I can relate to and feel for. The main reason I have walked out of one film and one film only was that I hated the characters and I didn’t care whether they lived or died (that film was The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe). I would have walked out of Van Helsing but someone else was sitting in the row and I didn’t want to disturb his film.

2 Guns HAD sympathetic characters and a good script that covered the buddy-buddy aspect of working in a team (something Hawaii 5O does really well). It was funny and had some, reasonably plausible, action scenes. All-in-all it was a very enjoyable film. The baddies end up dead and the good guys win. Well done.

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Decade of Aggression – Slayer

This review is easy to write.

I first got this album on double music cassette in about 1992. I had seen Slayer as part of the “Clash of the Titans” tour at Wembley Arena and really liked them. They recorded the video to “War Ensemble” at that particular concert. I think that some of the songs on this album were recorded at that exact gig that I saw. The tape version has since been supplemented by a CD version and finally an MP3 version on the NAS drive.

This is an AWESOME album.

If you only buy one thrash metal album then it had better be this one and then in all honesty you only need to play the first song as it covers all needs of guitar based turn-on.

My favourite songs on this album are (and I don’t apologise for the length of the list):

  • Hell Awaits
  • War Ensemble
  • South of Heaven
  • Raining Blood
  • Dead Skin Mask
  • Seasons in the Abyss
  • Mandatory Suicide
  • Angel of Death
  • Hallowed Point
  • Blood Red
  • Postmortem
  • Chemical Warfare

The atmosphere conveyed by these disks is brilliant. You can only find one better live album out there (Live After Death). This puts all others to shame. Get it. Play it. LOUD.

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Dark Side Of The Moon – Pink Floyd

I’m expecting some complaints after this communication and album review. First let me give you my personal story of “Dark Side of the Moon”.

I was about 14 and was visiting Lynda, my best friend’s Aunt. First she showed us the video to “Thriller” which was very exciting and then she told us to listen to a particular album. It was, obviously (?), “Dark Side of the Moon”. I can remember the gatefold album and looking at the cover. I don’t really remember listening to the music much but I seem to remember the catchy riff of money. The music had a lot of weird stuff going on.

Years later I remember describing Pink Floyd as “dull monotonous shit”. I think, overall, this is a statement I will stand by. “Dark Side of the Moon” I will accept is a classic and parts of it send shivers down my spine. That does not mean that I have to like everything by that band and it certainly doesn’t mean I have to accept them as geniuses.

BTW I probably will accept Pink Floyd as genius. Their music really does affect some people a lot. A lot more than I would consider suitable but they love. It just doesn’t bother me so much. Sorry about that. I think I can recognise the good but also you have to accept it does nothing for me. It’s a bit like religion. I understand the attraction to religion and its good points but for me it’s all rather offensive.

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Dark Roots Of Earth – Testament

I bought this album because I was going to see Testament play at KoKo in London. I know “Practice What You Preach” from my days at school and I thought I needed to know a few more songs and so I got their latest album.

Old Dog  applies to this album, but I would say it definitely works well. There’s a maturity in the song writing and it is also well produced. The anger is still there but reduced slightly from those heady days of teenage testosterone. They played a few songs live and they sounded good. There’s something funny about middle-aged rockers trying to maintain the anger at the establishment, but also becoming part of the machine they hated.

It’s worth a listen.

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D – HexRx

HexRx make dirty hellectro music. That’s quite curious because hellectro is rather dirty in itself. HexRx take many samples from horror films and then build “tunes” around them. I can listen for about an album at a time and then it’s time for something else.

I like it, I just can’t take too much. Listening is an experience, which is a bit of a theme with this album.

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Now You See Me

I went to see this film to kill a few hours one evening. I’ve just signed up for unlimited films with Cineworld and so I aim to go at least once a week from now on.

This film was a slight disappointment. The premise was really good but the tricks were just too fanciful. I’ve seen some big stage magic before but linking that in with real criminal activity just pushes it beyond the acceptable. This was one of those films where everything seems to have been planned including how everyone will react. I don’t think this is possible and I don’t like it in films. The super-criminal is able to predict exactly how everyone will make their next move and so can perform wondrous tricks and activities. BS. Life just doesn’t work like that. Ultimately people are a little unpredictable and so I don’t like these sorts of films.

Look, it killed a couple of hours and I spent most of the time trying to recognise the Hulk in the film. I’m rubbish at recognising films and so have to rely on IMDB (or the Cardiff Movie Database as I first new it!).

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World’s End

Went to see this “British” film in Croydon with A Smith. Sometimes I go to the cinema with A Gunn, so you make your choice about names.

Had a nice curry before the film and some good Indian lager. I don’t think this affected my judgement as Smith thought the same as me.

The film had some nice touches and its funny parts were quite funny but it wasn’t great. “Alright” was just about as far as I could stretch. The lead character was annoying and I just didn’t care much about him. He could have been much more interesting and sympathetic and the film would have been better.

I think they tried to do too much with the film. They’ve done cop films and zombie films and this attempt at sci-fi/horror didn’t really work. The “aliens” could have been much creepier and the gang should have discovered these things a little slower in the film.

It was alright.

The town where it was filmed looked very pretty. Damn, that’s quite a middle-aged thing to say!

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