The Crystal Bearers has been on my watch list since it was first discussed back at the 2006 E3 conference. In a sentence, the game does not disappoint. For those that are not familiar with the title, it operates in the Crystal Chronicles world, albeit much further in the time line (1,000 years) than the initial effort in the line. The title focuses on Layle, a Crystal Bearer, as first…
There are very few records that could illicit the almost academic like study of its origins, but Bruce Springsteen’s career defining Born to Run is one that can. Recorded nearly 35 years ago, the record was delayed in part due to Springsteen’s extreme perfectionism and intense pressure from the band’s record label desperate for a big seller after their first two efforts garnered critical praise, but failed to find an…
Christmas and holiday specials more generally have been plagued for years by a style of writing that breaks the characters in question from their normal motivation and fills them with some sort of cross-cutting holiday spirit. All involved with the It’s Always Sunny holiday special have ensured that this does not happen, and as a result, this special is one that will be remembered. First off, the DVD version of…
Up is one of those films that practically everyone I talked to appreciated. Some found it ultimately sad, others funny, but all appreciated the work that Pixar and Disney put into it. The film itself really discusses the limits of truth, whether it be the possibility of setting a house to flight through the use of numerous balloons or the dethroning of Charles F. Muntz (Christopher Plummer) through what all…
It is interesting to see Spike Lee move into sports. Of course, everyone knows that Lee has been a fixture at many a Knicks game, but I personally though that ey would stick with the feature films for a while longer.
For the bulk of his career, Jason Yates spent most of his time hidden behind a Hammond B3 organ. But as his self-titled sophomore record shows, he actually belongs in front of the mic. Lying somewhere between jam band rocker and Americana singer songwriter, Yates writes heartfelt rock without skimping on the funk.
There have been a slew of movies created this decade with the backdrop of the Iraq war, but most have failed miserably. It seems British director/writer Armando Iannucci may have finally found the right formula.
(500) Days of Summer is a romantic comedy that seems to strip away many of the played-out features of the genre while still coming forth as eminently approachable for all audiences. The film itself may be a little challenging to get into at first due to the non-linear path it takes. This means that different scenes from Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and Summer’s (Zooey Deschanel)’s relationship are shown. While there seems…
This doc on Sid Vicious is appropriately brief. Considering the second bassist for The Sex Pistols was barely in the band before the group imploded on their first U.S. tour, the fact that this documentary is 80 minutes long is actually pretty impressive.
Laidback folk rocker Jack Johnson has been accused of writing the same song over and over again. If nothing else, En Concert, the Hawaiian singer’s live record, goes to show just how diverse he can be. Recorded on his 2008 world tour En Concert is everything a live record should be: expansive (the songs cover all five of his albums) and creative (the arrangements are far from predictable).
We here at NeuFutur HQ reviewed Sol Skugga’s last album, “Swimming Without Webbed Toesâ€, about a year and a half ago (https://neufutur.com/?p=3814). The album itself was a great introduction to Skugga’s unique form of music, but I see “Fairytales and Lullabies†to be an evolutionary shift for the better. “Burn Her†is a very traditional, almost medieval track that benefits greatly from Skugga’s powerful voice. The vocals clash greatest with…
Anyone that knows me on NeuFutur or at the headquarters knows that I am not a fan of coffee in the slightest. I was going to sit this review out, but the other reviewers urged me to familiarize myself with Kahlua’s latest offering. I am glad that I had the ability to try it, as it is one of the better creamy liqueurs that I have had since we have…
Know Your Mushrooms is directed by Ron Mann, who was the creative mind behind counter-cultural film Grass, along with Go Further and Comic Book Confidential. The film is centered around the magic mushroom – psilocybin – where Mann looks to determine whether there is any merit to the alarmist claims put forth by the government or related groups, or if there could conceivably be some benefit to popping a quarter…
Sauza has been a major name in Tequila for a long period of tiem, but I believe that before today, I had never had a chance to check out the spirit until now. This tequila has been through two levels of distilling, ensuring for the smoothest possible experience. The Blanco is as clear as water, while the nose of the Blanco blends well the alcohol bite and familiar tequila body.…
Lyle Lovett is one of those rare musicians that has earned a critic’s pass of sorts. Thanks to decade’s worth of brilliant songs, he’s allowed to put out a weaker album every now and then. Natural Forces, his latest, is not bad, but again not among his best. Though Lovett has managed to cast a pretty big net beyond the traditional country music fan with past albums, the dozen songs…
AC/DC is one of those bands where there is very little fence sitting. You either love ‘em or hate ‘em and I just happen to fall into latter category. The argument that always gets trotted out in discussing AC/DC is that the band sounds the same on just about every song on every album. Well… you’re right. They found a formula very early on that works: big crunchy power chords…
“Big Star†starts out with a piano line that sticks with listeners long after the track ends, while the vocals here are influenced by strong female singers like Joan Osbourne, Sarah McLachlan, and even Sheryl Crow. The production during “Big Star†is perfect, bringing out the vocals without dwarfing the rest of the instrumentation present. “The Sun†looks to continue the momentum first garnered during “Big Starâ€, with Cameron’s own…
Bruno is the latest Sacha Baron Cohen film, and like its older cousin Borat, it really showcases a fish out of water situation. Where the film seems to be more story-oriented than Borat, many of the individuals that I knew that went to see the movie wanted to view exactly what Bruno Gehard got eirself into. The Bluy-Ray edition of the film is a spot-on transfer of the original theatrical…
Coconut is one of the more familiar flavors that rum has been placed with in my experience, and this is not for nothin’; the taste of the coconut meshes well with the rum, and the resulting spirit exudes a more tropical flavor than say a Cherry rum. The Brinley Gold version of coconut rum is one of the best I have had. First off, the rum with which the coconut…
Platinum 7X is a vodka that we have seen take over the shelf space of a great many of the liquor stores that we here at NeuFutur have stopped at in the last feqw months. From first blush, what Sazerac has done here is to create a visually distinctive product. Whether it is the deep blue of the bottle or the triangular shape of said bottle, potential purchasers will immediately…