The Western as a genre has never recovered from the precipitous decline experienced by the seventies and eighties. I believe that most of the viewing audience has been burnt by films in the genre, which tend to be rote recreations of better titles. Blackthorn, starring Sam Shepard, Stephen Rea, and Eduardo Noreiga, is one of the films that looks to restore the Western to its former glory. The title focuses…
The brutality of Haemorrhage’s Hospital Carnage is unparalleled. The presence of cuts like Fomite Fetish and 911 show that the language of metal is world-wide. The band is able to establish their own unique style of metal by taking bits and pieces from some of the biggest acts (Cannibal Corpse, Deicide, Anthrax) and inserting their own flavor and flair. The band flips the album format on its head. Rather than…
kimi ni todoke – From Me to You- Volume 1 (Box Set) / 2012 NIS America / http://www.nisamerica.com / http://store.nisamerica.com kimi ni todoke is a show that can be enjoyed by any age and familiarity with anime. The show tells of Sawako’s life, eir hard times at high school, and how eir classmates can be mean. As Sawako continues eir path through high school, eir feelings begin to grow more…
This is not a tribute. Rather, the work done by Corea, Gomez, and Motian in invigorating Bill Evans’ work should be seen as a completely new album. Fans of Evans will appreciate the sheer amount of work the trio have done on singles like Hot House and Off The Cuff. This is because they have fully deconstructed each of Evans efforts down to the constituent elements; the rebuilding that they…
Tim McGraw has had all the fame that one could conceivably want in country music. While it seems almost as if older performers can coast on the successes that they have achieved, McGraw’s work on Emotional Traffic shows a performer that still give it eir all. The album starts out with Halo, a longer track that sets up the overall feel of Emotional Traffic, along with the styles and sounds…
There is so much to learn about The Doors. The band hit a wall with the death of Jim Morrison, and the different interviews between Ray Manzarek, John Densmore and Robbie Krieger show that. However, the process that the band entered into when they were recording L.A. Woman was nothing different than the norm. One gets into the mind of each of The Doors as they laid some of the…
I must admit that before receiving The Moment of Truth (Il momento della verita), I was not too familiar with the works of Francesco Rosi (Hands Over the City, Christ Stopped at Eboli). The Moment of Truth is Rosi’s 1965 film, and it focuses on the trials and tribulations of an up and coming bullfighters. This is a story of an underdog that ultimate receives fame and riches, all while…
The whole-hog restoration and placement of older films onto the Blu-Ray format is great. It allows different resources to be tapped, while giving viewers a take on the film that is utterly and completely new. Synapse Films has released this 1989 Scott Spiegel title, with luminaries such as Quentin Tarantino and Lawrence Bender tapped to provide this vision. A cast of stars (Bruce Campbell, Renee Estevez, and Sam Raimi) all…
The film is something that requires a few solid views to capture everything that has been presented in its 105 minute run time. Where the film could travel down a path that numerous films have taken, I believe that it provides a fresh take on the horror and suspense genres. Sam Worthington and Brian Heigh do a stellar job in creating the camaraderie that two detectives would have after working…
This film is fantastic, and showcases the fact that period historical pieces can still work. It is the attention to detail that makes this film soar, as one will be transported back to the Spanish Civil War period. While individuals that have taken American history courses will have little information about this event, I believe that Roland Joffe’s (The Mission) skill ensures that a back story is provided. I liked…
