It's Just a Curl of the Burl

Dry Bone Valley

It has been over a month since my last post so in this one I'm going to write a few reviews of some films I've watched and an awesome gig I went to. Just in case some of you decide not to read this blog because you think it's just going to be about a metal band then I will start with my film reviews.

Octopus Has No Friends

The Amazing Spider-Man

 

 

 "Amazing" isn't a word I would use to describe this film. "Waste", "Of" and "Time". They're more like the ones I would use and they're already in the right order.  I can't say I'm a fan of Spider-Man in the first place. I used to love the '90's cartoon but the recent films have just made Spider-Man seem like a complete tool. How can someone so uncool get awesome powers and still remain uncool. All while spouting some hackneyed one-liners that would make '80's Arnie want to "let off some steam." Avoid it if you can. And if you can't, at least the two hour run time seems to go by quick enough.

 

A Fantastic Fear of Everything

 

 

 Simon Pegg plays a writer who becomes afraid of his surroundings while writing a TV series based on murderers. I found it a little hard to get into at the start. Maybe it was down to the slight over-use of narration  but after a while it picks up. It's at this point that it becomes quite unpredictable which only adds to the humour and turns what was probably a half decent film into an enjoyably great movie.

 

Prometheus

 

 

 I hadn't watched Prometheus since last year when I saw it in the cinema. And I have to say I could have waited longer. It's still a big mess of a movie that leaves you yelling at the idiots on screen when they can't do anything right. "You're scientists! You shouldn't be so stupid." I guess judging from the youth of today it was only inevitable that future scientists would only get dumber. There's already enough stuff online about how it doesn't make sense and how the characters are all terribly written so I won't add to that. My only question is: If all future intelligence is as bad as this film makes it seem, how did they invent a spaceship?

 

Moonrise Kingdom

 

I'm shocked that I waited so long to watch this film again. I wrote about this in my Top 10 Cinema Films of 2012. So if you bothered to read that Facebook post of mine then you'll already know my feelings on it. So in the interest of fairness, and laziness, I'm just gonna copy and paste what i said. JOURNALISM. 
Bill Murray. Two words that should make you want to see this. Bill Murray and a shoe. There's five and you're still here? Wes Anderson can make a dysfunctional family or group of people seem real. No matter how over the top it becomes you still find it believable.

Blood & Thunder

MASTODON

 

 Not to be confused with a Mammoth

Gigs, and music for that matter, don't get much better than Mastodon. This was my third time seeing Mastodon live and as good as the first two were this one was much better. I credit it to the fact that they now have so much more music to pick from. Considering their last album was a masterpiece it's no surprise that they played ten out of the thirteen songs off it. But you could say that all their albums are masterpieces, at least until a new one of theirs come out. Rarely do you witness a band's fans sing along to the new songs as  fervently as they do to the classics. (I mean who wants to hear new AC/DC? It sounds the same as the old stuff anyway. Just play Highway to Hell and the opening riff to Thunderstruck and everyone will be happy) The proof of this was during Curl of the Burl when Brent Hind's guitar decided to give up and yet he was still able to walk away from the mic and get a new guitar while everyone in the place sang the lyrics for him.

To witness Brann Dailor play drums is something else. The man never stops. I would be surprised if there was one piece of his drum kit that he didn't hit during every song. That's why I never trust drummers with only one tom drum. What's wrong with you? Are you afraid of actually playing it? Brann can play like he has six arms AND sing at the same time. Unbelievable drummer.

Bill Kelliher is somewhat the opposite of Brent on guitar. Both are fantastic guitarists but Bill tends to be more laid back while playing. Unfortunately he was the opposite side of the stage from where I was so I didn't get to watch him shred as much as I would have liked.

And yes Michelle, Troy Sanders was there too. He was pretty much the focal point of the band. When he wasn't singing he was bouncing around the stage. At least this time he had the room to move not like when they played in Belfast the last time.

I got this shirt

If you happen to not like good music then at least you had Robbie Williams and Bon Jovi to go see this week. You just happened to make the wrong life choice and I hope you feel bad. But as Mastodon sing in the song "Blasteroid": If you are sad/ and need to cry/ then turn around and go outside.

Aishling got this one

Stargasm

I suppose that's enough gushing over Mastodon and enough belittling of your choice in music. Now it's just time to leave you with my movie recommendation.
Robot & Frank
This film was out last year and I don't know what made me think of it recently but I'm glad I did. Where nowadays some indie movies try too hard to "feel" indie (usually by putting mopey teens in it), this one actually succeeds by just being plain good.

That's it for now. All I need is a sign off. Someone come up with a groovy catchphrase for me to end my blogs on. There may be a prize in it for you. But most likely not. Bye-bye.

Gwangi!!

Ray Harryhausen 1920-2013

It was a sad week with the passing of possibly the greatest legend in stop-motion animation, or as the man called it himself: "Dynamation". Ray Harryhausen influenced nearly every special effects artists working today from Steven Spielberg to Nick Park.

If like me you saw some of his films when you were young then i should hope his creations stuck with you over all that time. I can remember seeing Clash of the Titans and Jason and the Argonauts and the fantastic looking creatures from the mind of Harryhausen. The Medusa, the Kraken, the Hydra and the cool skeleton warriors. These days computers are used to create such creatures but somehow they never look as good. The best example of this is in the remake of Clash of the Titans. Not only was it bad enough that they tacked on 3D, had Sam "one character" Worthington in it, but they left out Bubo. They just had a quick shot of him. Sacrilege! Compare the Kraken in both films and i think you'll find that the original is far better. It just has a weight to it that makes it more real.

I watched the documentary Ray Harryhausen: Special Effects Titan. It's a great look back at the films he made with interviews from big name directors such as Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg and from the special effects people behind films like Star Wars and Jurassic Park. Seeing the painstaking work that went into making his films makes you realise just how talented the man was. Not only had he to create the monsters but then he had to film them. In the documentary he explains how he shot the movie The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms, which is about a monster that awakens from under the sea due to atomic tests. Can you name the series of films that stole this idea? I won't explain the process of how he shot it so you can see it for yourself but mainly because i can't remember it exactly. It's no surprise he only made 16 films in his 40 year career.

The one complaint i have with the documentary is James Cameron. I don't see how you can make a film about someone as talented as Ray Harryhausen who spent ages crafting many amazing looking creatures and giving each one a personality and then have a man who lets computers do his work for him while he farts out some basic story. It reminded me of another documentary i saw: It Might Get Loud. In it Jimmy Page and Jack White talk about their life and love of playing guitar and then The Edge comes on and you just yell at him to go away so you can see more of Jimmy Page being like a child as he listens to his vinyl records. Nobody wants to hear from The Edge or James Cameron. Both of whom have diluted their respective art with too many effects.

But we do get one great moment when Cameron says that if Harryhausen was making films today he'd definitely use computers and then we cut back to Ray and he says he wouldn't go near a computer and would stay with his stop-motion.

One of the best things about the documentary is the fact that Ray Harryhausen is in it talking us through his films. I don't think it would have been as good had it been made posthumously. We also get to see some of the models he made. The detail that went into making all the creatures is astounding. You should definitely watch this documentary and then watch his films. You owe it to the man.

"Must rupture the moon crust" she's thinking.

 

Now i'm sure you have watched Gentlemen Broncos. And loved it. How could you not? It's just too strange not to be awesome.
My recommendation this time is for another awesomely strange film. This time from 70's Japan:
Hausu.
This picture should pretty much tell you all you need to know about it.

 
If that doesn't pique your interest then go watch Avatar.

A Review of Things.

"Fuck the cops. Fuck 'em!"

  

Well I hope some of you took my advice last time and watched Seven Psychopaths. And you can now appreciate just how great Sam Rockwell is. It was one of the best films released last year and had a lot more going for it than all the summer blockbusters combined. The story was ingenious: a screenwriter trying to write a new film and not realising how his own life was actually playing out better than any film he could come up with. Every actor put  in a great performance. I'm not going to praise Christopher Walken and Sam Rockwell  because we all know that they never let you down. I was never a fan of Colin Farrell but after watching him in this I have kind of forgiven him for being out-acted by his own eyebrows in all the crap he usually decides to make. As for Woody Harrelson, he's at his best when he's allowed to play the over-the-top character. Even Tom Waits adds a bit of cool eccentricity to an already eccentric cast of characters. And of course the best part of the film is the shoot-out in the cemetery. That scene alone puts almost every other action film to shame.

"Groovy"

This week i decided to watch the original Evil Dead films before going to see the remake/reboot or whatever they decide to name these superfluous abominations. Abomination may be a strong word for this remake. But it's almost perfect for the likes of The Thing premake and the Saws.

While Evil Dead (2013) isn't exactly a terrible film it could, however, be any horror film. The only thing that ties it to the original is the fact it's set in a cabin and has a book of the dead, which in no way looks as awesome as the one from Evil Dead 2. I wouldn't even pick it up if i saw it at a book sale, human flesh cover or not. Where the original had the young folk find a tape recorder and accidentally play the incantation to release the demons, this one has the guy with the glasses read it from the book despite all the warnings he saw written throughout it. Seriously, how can the guy with the glasses be such a dipstick?

Evil Dead (2013) relies too heavily on the usual horror clichés that most new horror films overuse. I could actually name them all right before they happened. And when will people learn that jump scares are not scary? In the original Evil Dead when the camera runs through the forest you get the sense that something is coming but in this one it just feels like someone is running through the forest with a camera. Also there was no imagination with the look of the possessed people. If they have red contact lenses and some blood on them then you can assume they are possessed.

At this point you're probably wondering why I said this wasn't a terrible film and then did nothing but complain about what it did wrong. The thing is I can't really say what I liked about it but I just didn't hate it. Maybe it's because since this did well there have been rumours about Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell teaming up again to make a new Evil Dead or Army of Darkness. And that can only be a good thing. Even if we have to put up with a cliché ridden remake.

In conclusion I would recommend Evil Dead (2013) to anyone wanting to see a new horror film. Just don't expect anything groundbreaking or overly memorable. If, however, you wasted money every year on Paranormal Activity or Saw before that then please don't hesitate to spend money on this. You will be giving me and other real horror fans the chance to see a proper Evil Dead made with Bruce Campbell.

"Hey! I'll swallow your soul! I'll swallow your soul!"

So there it is. My somewhat 2 star review of a film I would recommend. But of course the best way to make up your mind is to watch it yourself. You'll either like it or gain a new found respect for the originals.

Now for my suggestion on what you should watch:
Gentlemen Broncos.
If you don't laugh your Broncanus off then you should check your pulse. You may already be dead.

Until next time, beware of the surveillance does. I hate those.

...And So It Begins

Hello. Welcome to my new blog thing. I was helped by the lovely Aishling to put this together. So if you have any complaints please direct them to her. Anyway, I will try to make this a relatively painful experience. At least for myself. So for my first blog I would like to talk a little about music. Particularly my favourite album of 2012.

A bit late for that you say? Well if you knew of all the great albums that came out last year you would understand the delay. I had so much to catch up on and I still haven't gotten through all of 2012's releases. But if the likes of Gojira, Devin Townsend Project and Witchcraft couldn't beat my Number 1 then I doubt the ones I haven't listened to yet would manage it. Before I reveal my Number 1 let me mention some of the albums that made 2012 a great year for music.

"L'enfant Sauvage" by Gojira. Is there a band heavier than Gojira? There may well be but Gojira are able to play heavy without bludgeoning the listener. Also it's rare to find another death metal band with a conscience and who care about the environment more than they do about Satan. While not on this album (and maybe never to be released due to bad luck) you should listen to their song Of Blood and Salt, which features Devin Townsend.

"Epicloud" by Devin Townsend Project. Devin has a style all of his own. Whether you listen to one of his heavy songs or one of his mellow ones or even the one about a cheeseburger you can unmistakably hear what it is. It's hard to describe but it's there. From the start of the album, which features a choir, right to the end, you will realise why "Epic" is in the album title. And in the name of Oden please play it LOUD.

"Down IV Part 1-The Purple EP" by Down. Part 1 of a planned four EPs. There may only be six songs on it but the quality of the EP is better than most bands can achieve on a full length album. As Down get older their talents seem to grow. Where others will just start to phone it in and rely on past glories, Down continue to outdo themselves on each release and I for one am looking forward to their planned acoustic EP.

"Legend" by Witchcraft. I had never heard of Witchcraft until a couple years ago when i read that Phil Anselmo was a fan and cited them as an influence. Unfortunately it took me until last year to listen to them. And it was worth the wait. It's one of those albums that you listen to and as soon as it's over you listen to it again. Highly recommended.

While the above albums are in no particular order, there was one album that I found myself going back to listen to a lot and sometimes on a daily basis. So here is my Number 1 album of the year.

"A Eulogy of the Damned" by Orange Goblin. This album came out in February of last year and it remained my favourite album for all that time. There is not a bad song on the album. I would even say they range from amazing to scrumtrulescent. The opening song, Red Tide Rising, kicks the album off how it means to go on: loud, heavy and groovy. Joe Hoare needs to be recognised as one of the best riffmeisters out there. Ben Ward's voice itself is almost like an instrument, adding an extra layer to the songs. Without it I doubt the songs would have the impact they do. It's hard to pick out one song as the best but being that I am a horror fan i would have to pick The Fog. It's one of those rare things, a love song that doesn't make you want to throw up or punch your momma. It is of course a love song to John Carpenter's The Fog. Ben Ward made sure to tell us that during their last gig in Dublin. So if you haven't listened to this album or seen The Fog (the original of course, there is no remake, don't be preposterous) then I am going to have to strongly advise you to do so.

Well there you go. My first blog and some great points made, i think you'll agree. I hope 2013 will have as many good albums as last year. Judging by the new Clutch album i think it should be just as awesome. And we still have albums by Ghost, Rob Zombie, Children of Bodom and Amon Amarth to come out yet. I can't wait. Hopefully I can give you some reviews of them as they come out along with any films i see. Maybe Evil Dead next week.

As a (hopefully) regular feature, at the end of each blog I will suggest a film that you may enjoy watching.
First up: Seven Psychopaths.

Thank you for reading and I look forward to your feedback. Be constructive.