"batman: year one"

this DC animated original was based on the graphic novels by frank miller and david mazzucchelli.  the comics take place in the first year that bruce wayne began stalking the streets of gotham.  it also happens to be the same year that a down-trodden police lieutenant named james gordon transferred to gotham city.

batman is seeking revenge against the criminal element that took his mother and father 18 years ago.  gordon is just trying to survive in one of the most corrupt police departments in the world.  much like the graphic novel the movie tends to focus more on gordon's story.  we see the batman through his eyes and how batman's emergence effects the city and the GCPD.

we all know batman's story from countless retellings of his origin story over the years.  both tim burton's "batman" and chris nolan's "batman begins" deal heavily with this topic but (even though there is much more of gordon in nolan's batman films) we've never really seen gordon's back story.

in "batman: year one" we learn that gordon ratted out a fellow officer and either moved on his own or was transferred to gotham against his will.  gordon learns almost immediately that the GCPD is a corrupt organization from the top to the bottom.  everyone is either in the pocket of the mob or working hand in hand with drug dealers.  gordon is a good cop that detests the corruption and wants nothing to do with it.  this gets him into a lot of trouble with his fellow officers but he is a hit with the media and labeled as a "hero cop".  this protects him for a bit but not for long.  his fellow cops turn on him and gordon takes matters into his own hands to protect himself and his growing family.  it doesn't help that there's a developing love interest with a detective sarah essen that could threaten his marriage as well.

bryan cranston ("malcolm in the middle", "breaking bad") voices james gordon

ben mckenzie ("the OC", "southLAnd") portrays batman/bruce wayne

as far as the movie itself goes:  the cast is good with cranston and mckenzie doing very good jobs.  eliza dushku ("dollhouse", "buffy the vampire slayer") voices selina kyle/catwoman and katee sackhoff ("battlestar: galactica") is sarah essen.  they all do a pretty good job here.  


the animation is fluid and looks great.  they try to follow mazzucchelli's lead and they do it well.  


overall, it's a pretty good flick.  the story is good and i would love to see a follow-up version of "the man who laughs" that brings us the joker which is hinted at at the end of "year one".


bottomline:
3.5 outta 5

"justice league: the new frontier"

"justice league: the new frontier" is based on a mini-series created by darwyn cooke.  the story takes place during the cold war and super heroes are being hunted by the government and are either on the run or retired.   there are a few that remain and try and work with the government but, they are sometimes exploited.

the movie focuses mainly on hal jordan, a former fighter pilot during the korean war who was shot down just as the war ended by korean soldiers who did not heed or did not know that the war was over. 

david boreanaz is green lantern!!

  
jordan lands only to be confronted by a hostile enemy that he has to kill to survive.  after serving and spending some time in a hospital he needs a job.  he gets work at ferris aircraft and eventually learns that he's training for a secret mission to mars.  the reason: a martian has transported to earth and is living amonst us as we speak.  the government can't locate him and want to go to the planet to find out if the martians are hostile or friendly.

the martian in question is j'onn j'onzz, also known as the martian manhunter.  MM is accidently teleported to earth by a scientist hoping only to communicate with mars.  stranded here, MM tries to fit in.  he can alter his appearance and begins work as a police detective.  MM finds out about the mars mission and hopes that that is his way home.  but as he tries to sneak onto the ship he is discovered and captured.

miguel ferrer voices the martian mahunter

the mission is a failure and hal jordan is once again grounded and lost.  space was his redemption.  but just as he despairs he is transported unwillingly to the location of a fallen member of a galactic police force known as the green lantern corps.  he is given a ring with unlimited power and a second chance.


the heroes of earth have to come together to defeat a being known as the centre.  the centre is a massive island-like being that spews dinosaur-like creatures and is determined to destroy mankind.  with the help of the new heroes in green lantern, the flash, and martian manhunter the existing heroes of batman, superman and wonder woman work to save the world.

this animated movie is one of my favourites in the DC animated original movies.  it may not follow the comic (also, a fave) exactly but it's a perfect adaptation.  the art style is very much like that of creator, darwyn cooke.  the script is smart and concise and the voice talent is very well chosen and directed.


david boreanaz ("angel", "bones") is hal jordan, NPH is the flash, lucy lawless is wonder woman, kyle maclachlan is superman and jeremy sisto is batman.


overall, the movie is just incredibly done.  the timeline of the 50's and 60's of JFK's "new frontier" it takes place in really fits with the emergence of a new frontier of heroes.
the animation is kind of a throwback to the kirby era and works perfect with the time frame.


bottomline:
4 outta 5.

"green lantern"

my first introduction to green lantern was in my childhood.  there was a little show called "super friends".  i already knew superman, batman, wonder woman and i even knew who aquaman was.  but, i had no idea who this green guy was.  he had a ring that could do stuff...that's kinda cool!

 over the years i heard things about green lantern, i even had a comic book of the green lantern corps at one time but i just couldn't get into him.  he was kinda neat, but he just wasn't the flash, ya know?  then, i heard that he turned evil and then died.  that was crazy!  really?  ok.  

i didn't really appreciate green lantern (or especially hal jordan because there have been many green lanterns: john stewart, kyle raynor, guy gardner and the original alan scott) until i began playing heroclix.  i got my hands on hal jordan and fell in love with the green basterd.  after that i started reading up on him and then DC decided to bring him back from the dead.  i bought the comics and read them up!!

now, that brings us to the movie.  the comic book movie boom was taking off, especially for DC after "batman begins".  DC and warner bros. announced they were gonna make a GL flick and i got a little excited.  but not too excited 'cos they hadn't even cast it yet.

i have to say i had mixed feelings about ryan reynolds being cast.  i personally really wanted the part to go to nathan fillion.  but i understand that he was busy with his hit TV show "castle"!!

nathan fillion as capt malcolm reynolds in "firefly"

fillion and stana katic on ABC's "castle"

the redeeming factor for DC/WB is that they cast nathan as GL in the animated flicks!!  way to go!!

ok...moving on...  

so, ryan reynolds is hal jordan and the movie gets made and the first thing that everybody's up in arms about is that the costume he wears is going to be CGI.  why is that a problem??  have you seen the spandex crap he wore in the crappy TV show??

see??  crap!!

anyway, reynolds gets cast and i'm OK with it.  yes, he has a tendency to "ryan-reynolds" it up a bit, but that's why you hire him, right?  and he's a solid actor, he can pull off a part if he wants.  besides, hal jordan was kind of a sarcastic, sly guy in the beginning before he got the ring.  he was a test pilot for christ's sake.  he has to have an attitude!!

i keep getting sidetracked here.  let's talk about the movie.  the CGI suit works for me.  the ring powers the suit so the suit is pure energy.  it makes perfect sense that they suit would be energy and not some kinda...suit.  and i think it looks pretty good.  also, the CGI backgrounds and the planet OA and the effects are pretty incredible.  they put a lot of time and effort and money into those.  the planet is awesome and i wish i would have seen it on the big screen.

that being said, i wish they would have put more money into the leading lady.  blake lively is a waste.  she can't stand toe to toe with reynolds and it seems reynolds is acting down to her.  they needed someone with a little more spirit.  i totally would have cast jen garner, but i love her...so...

the basic plot of the movie is this:  there a galactic police force patrolling the universe.  the universe is broken up into sectors and there is one member of each alien race chosen to police that sector.  the lanterns use a power ring that channels the power of will into constructs of pure energy limited only by what the ring-bearer can imagine.  the beings that started all this are a race known only as the guardians.  the are older than dirt and figured out how to channel the energy of emotions a long time ago. one of the emotions they tried to control was fear and that went all wonky.  fear overtook one of the guardians and he became parallax becoming so powerful the lanterns couldn't stop him save one: abin sur (played by temuera morrison). 

temuera morrison as abin sur and jango fett

he imprisoned parallax in a distant galaxy.  parallax, of course, escaped and began seeking revenge upon the lanterns.  abin sur was killed in the fight but before he died his ring chose his replacement, hal jordan.  the ring chooses those of the strongest will power and hal jordan is the first human to ever be chosen for the race is far too young according to the other aliens.  

the rest of the cast is actually pretty impressive: tim robbins, peter sarsgaard, mark strong and the voices of mike clark duncan and geoffrey rush.  let's start with peter sargaard shall we.  he plays hector hammond, one of GL's big baddies.  i don't remember why, but in the comics his head gets really big.  like literally. 

his character here is another one of those "my dad never really paid any attention to me so i'm going to stumble upon some major power and become an asshole villain...o, and i totally have a crush on the leading lady and if i can't have her no one can!!" guys.  it's been done so many times that it's hard to even blink an eye at the "evil" choices he makes.  and everything he does is just your typical bad guy stuff.  the character and the actor bring nothing new to this movie.  the one thing that i did kinda like was there was a direct parallel between what was happening to him and what was happening to jordan.  hector's father is played by tim robbins and he's basically just your average senator.  nothing special there.

mark strong takes another turn at a villain.  he plays sinestro, GL's really big bad.  in this story he hasn't turned to the other side, yet.  here he's one of the greatest lanterns around and kind of a leader taking orders from the guardians (the oldest being in the universe that created the GL corp).  strong does a good job here and the make-up does make him look a lot like sinestro.

of course, we don't get to see strong really chew up the scenery yet 'cos he's still a good guy in this movie.  we'll have to wait for the much anticipated sequel.

rounding out the cast is gefforey rush voicing tomar-re and MC duncan voicing kilowog.  these are two alien GL's that help train hal in using the ring.  their parts are really way too small in this film.  

kilowog and tomar-re

the movie tried to cram too much stuff into the first movie.  i think if they went with a basic origin theme, had a training montage when he first gets the ring, have hammond be THE main and only villain with just a hint at the bigger bad in parallax (and eventually, sinestro), stick with the fact that hal jordan is struggling with fear and courage and evetually overcomes it to become the greatest GL ever...then, this would have been a great movie.  but, instead it just felt crammed full of stuff, a little jumpy from scene to scene and the love story was weak.

the director, martin campbell, is a good director and has done some pretty damn good flicks, mostly bond films ("goldeneye", casino royale", "edge of darkness" [both the mini-series and the mel gibson versions]).  as good as he is he doesn't seem to really have a singular vision.  he works to serve the film, which is great, but for a sci-fi/action/comic flick you need a visually stunning director.  it also has the distinction of having four screenwriters.  for me that's usually not a good sign.  it's better to have a singular voice in my opinion.  that is unless it's a writing team, otherwise it's "too many cooks in the kitchen".

finally...overall, i think the flick had a few things that worked for me.  the CGI was brilliant, reynolds and strong do a good job and it could only be improved upon with a sequel that works.

bottomline:

2.5 outta 5.

"dylan dog: dead of night"

so, this is a movie based on one of the most popular comics in the world.  and when i say that, i mean mostly in europe (and mostly in italy) 'cos i have never heard of it...ever.  however; because of this movie i really wanna check out the series 'cos it seems kinda cool.  it reminds me a lot of steve niles' "criminal macabre" detective comics featuring cal mcdonald.

the cover to the american re-release for the movie

.

the original dylan dog (yes, that is groucho behind him...but not the real groucho...)

cal mcdonold in "criminal macabre"

basically, dylan dog is a private investigator in NOLA working chump cases like cheating husbands and what-not.  but, apparently he used to be the go-to investigator for the living dead and werewolves.  see, the undead select one human they can trust to "police" and investigate the ones of their kind that get out of hand.  dylan betrayed that trust one day when he killed the elder vampires for revenge against his murdered fiancé.  turns out, his hand was forced by a vampire, vargas, a wanna-be crime lord who used dylan to get rid of his competition.
 
the cast for the film includes brandon routh (superman in "superman returns") and sam huntington (jimmy olsen from "superman returns"), taye diggs as the vampire, vargas; kurt angle (the wrestler from the WWE and TNA), and peter stormare (the devil from "constantine") and every one of them does a pretty good job with their characters.  peter stormare is a little unsettiling as the head of the werewolf clan, gabriel, (but what do you expect from him otherwise, right)? sam huntington is pretty damn funny as dylan's sidekick, a recently-turned-zombie named marcus.  routh and huntington are great together and i've liked both of them for a few years now.  i thought routh was perfect as clark kent/superman and i'm sorry he's not going to be in the new film.  it's quite the bummer for me.  and the times i've seen huntington in whatever TV or film role he's been in, i've enjoyed it.
  

brandon routh and sam huntington...clark and jimmy together again!!

since i haven't read the comic, i really can't speak about the difference between that and the film.  what i do know is that the comic is based in london, not new orleans and that dylan's partner is guy who dresses and acts like groucho marx more than likely because he is insane.

dylan dog was actually shot in new orleans and one of the exteriors used was a building (le pavillon hotel) that lauren and i went to a few years ago for a wedding reception.  it helped set the mood and would have been disastrous had they tried to make another city "look" like NOLA.

le pavillon hotel, new orleans (used as corpus, vampire night club)

here's me and the girl outside le pavillon.  althought you can't really see it.

the only thing that it didn't help was keeping the film from feeling disjaunted and a little choppy.  there's a voice-over like in the old film noir detective movies that's supposed to help explain things but doesn't really.  most of the exposition is between dylan's new client, elizabeth, and marcus, his zombie sidekick.  as fun as it is to have the noir-like voice-over it just doesn't serve any other purpose than a throwback to that style.  it also feels as thought they wanted the story to flow through without much exposition but the studio (or the studio) demanded some more explanation.  and there is a lot going on.  you have to keep track with who the werewolves are, who the vampires are, who the zombies are and each of their agendas.  there are characters, such as wolfgang played by kurt angle, who are not even introduced by name so when you hear him referenced a couple of times you have no idea if dylan's talking about a guy or an actual gang of wolves!  then, of course, there's the artifact that everyone's after that causes the destruction of the world and everyone pronounces it different so you have to pay attention...anyway...


i said before that the film feels "choppy".  the feeling that i got was that there may have been much footage shot but a lot of it was cut to keep the story more cohesive or for time.  i haven't taken a look at the special features on the DVD to see how many deleted scenes there are, yet.  i'll have to research this aspect of the flick and get back to you.  the director, kevin munroe, only has one other movie under his belt and that would be the animated turtles movie, "TMNT" from 2007.  i don't remember much about that movie...i think i saw it...anyway, going from animated flicks to live action adaptations of italian comic books seems like quite a leap to me.  this could explain some of the "choppiness".  maybe munroe was just in over his head a little.  then there are the screenwriters both of which have credits for "sahara", "a sound of thunder" and "conan the barbarian" (the remake or reboot or whatever) none of which rank very highly.  what also worries me is that they are credited for the upcoming doctor strange movie.  i hope they learn to adapt better.


regardless of inexperience or studio intervention or what-have-you, the movie just doesn't quite hit the mark.  it's quirky, but too safe to be really off beat.  it's funny, but not enough to be a comedy.  it's dark, but not dark enough.  the movie wanted to be a quirky cult movie based on a quirky cult comic but they played it too safe and tried to appeal to the masses instead of the dark-minded horror/comedy fans that would have embraced it otherwise.


overall, i have to say that i liked the movie in spite of itself.  brandon routh is a good guy and i hope that he finds that franchise that was stolen from him with superman but this movie ain't it.  the movie was good enough to rent, but i probably won't spend my hard earned moola on a DVD unless there's some sort of mega director's cut.


bottomline:
2.5 outta 5

"birdemic: shock and terror"

well...thanks to netflix i have witnessed the SECOND WORST movie i have ever seen: "birdemic: shock and terror".   


this movie is so troubled i don't even know where to begin.  let's start with the director.  james nguyen has made 3 movies as of now and working on a 4th (a 3D sequel to birdemic).  the first was "julie and jack" which is the story of a down on his luck computer chip salesman, jack,  who's not meeting his sales quota.  through his sex crazed friends advice he gets on a website and meets julie.  after meeting julie his sales turn around and love is in the air.  the next film is "replica" about a dying computer chip salesman who gets a kidney transplant and his life turns around.  thirdly, "birdemic: shock and terror" is about a computer chip salesman, rod, who sucks at his job until he meets nathalie, a fashion model who just gets the cover to victoria's secret, and his life turns around and love is in the air until eagles and vultures start killing people, including his sex crazed best friend and diving into things making airplane sounds and exploding.


i have the feeling james nguyen was a computer chip salesman and failed and then he watched a hitchcock film and bought a camera and decided to dedicate his life to ripping off hitchcock with terrible crappy movies.  nguyen has a little technical knowledge but no actual skill or talent to make the knowledge work.  i haven't watched the plethora of interviews and discussions about his films that are on the web and i kinda don't want to.  watching this film was enough.

i could go on and on about the crap in this film but i'll leave you with a couple of clips and...good luck...

what scares you?

every time i'm asked what's the movie that scared you the most i have a really hard time trying to figure that out.  the only movies that really got to me were "psycho" (i was young and didn't wanna take showers after that for a while), "king kong" (i was very, very young and there was a thunderstorm later that night and i swore that it was kong coming to get me!!), "and "the blair witch project" totally creeped me out (the power went out when i got home and i just couldn't get the movie outta my head).

now, those are a few of the movies that effected me in a fear-like way.  there are many that i love just because they are just great movies: "night of the living dead", "the sixth sense", "house of the devil", etc...but, the one that in my mind i always go to as the movie that effected me the most in BOTH ways is "the thing".  my first encounter with this movie was a couple of years after it came out and my dad was watching but he made me go into the other room.  all i could hear was screaming, weird noises, and cursing.  i got really curious so i peaked into the room through a crack in the door and i saw a guys face stretching up to the ceiling!!  what in the name of all things holy is going on!??!  i was totally freaked out and it stayed with me for quite some time.

then, later i finally got up the nerve to watch it.  it was brilliant and creepy as hell.  i loved every minute of it.

for years though if you asked what my favourite horror movie was i would probably have said "night of the living dead".  although i love that movie over the years "the thing" has just became more and more prominent in my mind.  

the movie is almost perfect.  yes, there are some cheesy moments and the FX are dated today...but that's one of the reasons i love it.  it's so much more REAL with the practical FX.  the new re-make/re-boot/prequel looks OK but the CGI just doesn't work for me.  i don't find that creepy.

anyway...this whole blog was just to declare my love for this classic horror film...and kinda my love for the director, john carpenter, who had the greatest run of flicks in the late 70's and early 80's of any director of that time.

kurt russell as "mccready"

a stop-motion remake with GI JOE fiqures

attack of the fall schedule!!

we started to try and watch a few of the new fall TV shows and i thought i'd jot down my thoughts on some of the ones i've seen so far...

x-tina applegate ("married...with children") and will arnett ("blades of glory")

 first up is the new baby-comedy on NBC called "up all night".  i thought it was a pretty good look into what the show will be mostly about, that being 2 former party people trying to cope with life after a new baby.  will arnett, christina applegate and mya rudolph star...and that's a pretty solid cast.  the first episode was kinda funny and i would like to see more from the show but i  don't think i'm gonna have to tune in every week to watch the exploits.  all in all, not a bad start.

hank azaria (voice of everyone on "the simpsons") and kathryn hahn ("crossing jordan")

 next up is "free agents".  this show is one that i had NEVER heard of.  not a peep anywhere.  i had no idea it existed.  it is also the one that surprised me the most.  it was funny and hank azaria is really funny...i've always liked him.  the other surprise is that their boss is GILES from buffy!!  

kat dennings ("house bunny") and beth behrs (nothing really...)

and now the last comedy on this list: "2 broke girls".  kat dennings and some girl from one of the american pie straight-to-DVD flicks star and it's pretty entertaining.  i won't watch every week...but i'll tune in to see what's up.

maria bello ("coyote ugly")

 now for the meat and potatoes part of the list.  the much hyped "prime suspect" is not your typical cop procedural drama.  it's more of a character piece centering on a female cop trying to make it in an all male precinct that are under the impression she slept her way to the top.  things get worse for her when she asks for a recently deceased detectives case.  needless to say, she ain't that popular.  it's not a bad show...but i just didn't fee compelled to come back to the next episode.

jesus christ (jim caviezel) and creepy ben linus (michael emersom)

 and finally, "person of interest"...another show i heard almost nothing about which is odd considering that it's created by johnathon nolan (brother of chris nolan and co-writer of "the dark knight") and executive produced by j.j. abrams.  i'll start off by saying that it's an interesting premise that i kinda boil down to this:  it's sorta "early edition" meets "the equalizer".  ben linus from lost and jesus christ team up to prevent people from violent crime before it happens via a machine that ben (mr. finch) created after 9/11.  it's a complicated idea but basically the machine asses risks that could take out large groups of people that they government can then try to stop.  but it also asses risks of posed to individuals, however; the machine deletes the list of indiviuals at midnight every night.  dr. finch , who no longer works for the government, didn't like this so he had the list sent to him.  jesus, mr. reece, is former military presumed dead that mr. finch convinces that his life needs direction.  so, mr. reece decides to take on the job and save people.  it wasn't a bad show despite the complicated plot and i'll definitely try and what it again.

you wanted the best?

so...some of you may know that i started reviewing my KISS CDs a week or so ago.  i decided that there were way too many to finish up on the VINYL JUSTICE page so, i'm gonna finish here.

 fist up is KISS' debut album simply titled...well, "KISS".  the songs were cobbled together from gene and paul's previous bands and new stuff from frehley. the album has some good stuff on it including the first set of classic tracks like "strutter", "deuce", "cold gin" but the filler songs are severely lacking.  the album also sounds a little under mixed and as i listened to it the other night i noticed that the version of "nothing to lose" was different.  it didn't sound familiar at all.  later these songs will sound incredible either live or rerecorded with better production and mixes.  overall, not a bad start to a long and varied career.

 the second album is one of my least favourites.  there are a couple of good songs on it ("goin' blind", "parasite", "hotter than hell") but it just sounds so muddy and sluggish. the pace on most of the tracks needed to be picked up a little.  but i have to say that "goin' blind" is one of the best songs i've ever heard.

due to the failure to sell of the first 2 albums the studio decided they needed a new album...and a hit single.  the band had no songs what-so-ever so they locked themselves in a room until they had some.  and it shows.  most of the songs here suck but there are some gems: "rock bottom", "c'mon and love me", and my personal favourite from the album "lover her all i can".  the album sounds horrible as well.  they couldn't afford an actual producer so the head of the record company produced it.  the crowning achievement of this record...and the 2 before it... is that they got their hit single.  "rock and roll all nite" went on to become one of the best rock songs ever recorded.



"alive!", "rock and roll over", "destroyer" and "alive II" were reviewed on the VINYL JUSTICE page...so i'm gonna skip them.

after the success of "destroyer" the band went for a more streamlined sound.  "love gun" is a straight-up rock album.  the record includes some of the best songs they ever recorded.  "destroyer" may have sounded better, but "love gun" is definitely the better album. it also features ace frehley singing lead on "shock me".  other stand outs include "i stole your love", "christine sixteen", and "love gun". this is another favourite of mine.  i'm always a little torn between this one and "destroyer" as my fave...depends on the time of year or something.  unfortunately this would also be one of the last good studio album of the make-up era.


see VINYL JUSTICE for the solo albums.

 this album represents the beginning of the end.  after the solo albums paul stanley got bit by the DISCO bug.  he infected gene simmons but not peter and ace.  peter didn't even play drums on the album and only sings one crappy song.  ace is the only one that bothers to try a rock song with "2,000 man" and "hard times".  but even with that this album has some good tracks "sure know something" is a good song as are "charisma", "magic touch" and even "i was made for lovin' you".  the one really good thing that came from this album was the hiring of eric carr to play on the tour.

 one of the other nails in the coffin.  this album is horrible with only a couple of listenable tracks.  "is that you?" is tolerable as is "shandi" but it's just full of pop crap.  ace tried hard but even he loused it up here and had to fight to even keep his crap on the album.  also, despite the fact that peter criss is on the cover he's not even on the album.  he quit earlier and they hired anton fig (from ace's solo album and later the david letterman band) to play on the album.  they then hired eric carr for the tour...which was one of the best moves they ever made.

 what better way to try and come back from oblivion than a concept album.  yea...good idea.  KISS is just not a concept album band.  and they paid the price by having their hardcore fans start to hate them.  despite that, there are a couple of OK songs here: "a world without heroes" and "mr. blackwell". overall it's not a bad album...just not a KISS album.  the best thing about the album is the debut of eric carr.  his drumming style totally changed KISS's sound to something more heavy.  he single-handedly saved the band, IMO.

the very last of the original make-up era albums.  despite the fact that ace is on the cover, he didn't play on the album.  it was the new guy vinnie vincent who will go on to replace ace on the tour as the ankh guy.  with the help of vinnie and eric this is a very heavy album.  it's a mix of the older kiss from the mid 70's and the upcoming metal era of the 80's. it is far superior to the 3 previous albums and has a couple of tracks that are now new KISS classics: "i love it loud" and "war machine".  it also has "i still love you" which is one of the first power ballads of the metal era.  they were headed in the right direction with this album.  could they continue or would they louse this up as well?



here are some incidentals including the next phase of the make-up era 2.0:

basically this was just a greatest hits record.  the only thing to note is that there's an updated version of "strutter" called "strutter '78".  the only difference between the two is there's a disco style high hat throughout.

"killers" was an imported greatest hits album that included 4 "new" songs that were the throwaways from the what was to become "music from the elder" and some left overs from "creatures of the night.  "nowhere to run" and "down on your knees" (co-written by bryan adams) are the only 2 of the four worth listening to.  "nowhere to run" is one of the better songs to come out of the end of this era.

with the success of the reunion tour KISS wanted to make a new album to capitalize.  they failed.  "psycho circus" is another failed attempt at a "concept" that included a comic book series, action figures and appearances on shows like "madTV" and the like.  i bought the comic book and it was OK.  i even bought the action figures...they were kinda cool.  the album itself was not that great.  first off, the focused way too much on matching it up with the concept of the comic and not trying to just make a good record.  also, once again it seems as though we later find out that ace and peter are not even on the album save for the 2 songs they perform.  the songs themselves have way too many attempts at anthems like "i pledge allegience to the state of rock n roll" and "raise your glasses"...they just kinda don't work.  the songs that DO work are the gene simmons performances: "within" and "journey of 1000 years".  these 2 are really well done and gene's vocals are actually pretty good.  ace also has a good tune with "into the void" which is just old school ace.  peter tries to bring back the success of "beth" but fails miserably.  overall the album is not that good but the good songs themselves are worth a listen.

what can i say about "sonic boom"?  well...it just kinda sucks.  the rerecorded greatest hits disc is so much better.  "sonic boom" is filled with poor attempts at recreating the KISS of the the past.  there are lots of tries for anthems....way too many.  just write some frickin' songs, guys!!  stop trying so hard for these frickin' anthems.  stop trying to recreate the past!!  you can't!!  they even hired the artist that created the cover for "rock and roll over".  the cover and the greatest hits package are truly the best things about this album.




so that concludes my recollections of the KISS make-up era.  i hope you enjoyed this little trip of mine through my past and present.  join me later for the "unmasked" era of KISS.

"harry potter and the deathly hallows, part 2"

and finally the end...

when the first harry potter flick came out i avoided it.  i had no interest in watching some kids movie about a wizard kid.  but EVERYONE was talking about the books and lookin' forward to the movie.  i was intrigued but never went to see it.

the 3 in the beginning...

so, a couple of years later the second movie was coming out and once again EVERYONE  was buzzing about it.  by this time i was working at the grand cinema and the buzz was even more...buzzy there.  i decided that when they showed chamber of secrets i would watch it to see what was going on.  but first i had to watch the first film.

i borrowed the first one from a friend who worked with me and was immediately sucked in to the whole world.  i even went out and bought the book!!  i read it in, like, a day and had to go buy the second one!!

by now I was excited about the movie and when we finally showed it i loved it.  i became a harry potter nut.

i went out and bought and read all the available books and over the years watched all the movies.

like the books, the movies just got better as they went along. the stories grew up with the reader and like life itself got a little darker and more difficult along the way.

i remember when sirius died and i was hopeful he would return.  but he didn't.  i was sad when dumbledore died.  i was excited when the the twins ceremoniously left hogwarts in the 5th book.  i remember being on the edge of my seat throughout the last book!!  

i loved the books and i loved all the movies as well.

so...that brings me here...to the last film.

it had been quite some time since i had read the book and i can't quite remember everything that happened and in what sequence but the final film was exactly what i would've wanted for a finale of one of the greatest movie franchises of all time.

neville longbottom is one of my favourite characters!!

every character had their moment, characters we've seen little of came back for the end.  people still died that were meant to die.  people got together that were meant to be together.  and i was happy.  there were no cop outs.  no chances of a sequel...unless she writes more books, that is...

...the 3 in the end...