Movie viewers this past weekend were treated to a teaser of one of the most anticipated movies of 2007.
The only words I can think of to describe it is “Holy god!”
silversun pickups
If you haven’t heard of the Silversun Pickups, just wait another month because you will.
This band out of Los Angeles brings it hard and heavy. I first heard “Kissing Families” on the second KEXP Music That Matters podcast. My mind exploded. I wanted to drive out to LA that night and watch them play.
On 25 July, Silversun Pickups will release their new full-length album “Carnavas.” For now, you need to check out “Pikul;” it’ll change your life.
Albums:
Pikul –
– amazon.com | iTunes
Carnavas – amazon.com
cat power on letterman
so, i thought i would start a little feature on the ol’ word of mouth scale that features some musicians and artists that i really enjoy and think you should probably listen to and spend some dough buying.
today we’ll have a look at cat power. she was on letterman on 13 june 2006. enjoy:
Albums:
The Greatest –
– amazon.com | iTunes
You Are Free –
– amazon.com | iTunes | Overstock.com
Cars
What is about a Pixar animation that just puts it head and shoulders above the rest?
The previews leading up to the new hit Cars explained it all. Having Cars collowing previews for films like Barnyard and Open Season probably did more damage than good for those films; especially considering that last two things to play were Pixar and Brad Bird’s (Iron Giant) Ratatouille and a Pixar short film, One-Man Band.. These two, let’s call them animated shorts, showed off the power that Pixar has to offer.
With that said, Cars was visually stunning, but the story, well, it had a little lacking.
X-Men: The Last Stand
There’s a special place in my heart for comic book movies. With the right director, they can take an otherwise outrageous comic and turn it into something that makes you think, “Yeah, I can buy into that.” Sam Raimi’s doing it with the Spiderman movies, and Bryan Singer did it with the first two X-Men. Fear set in when Singer stepped aside to put new life into the Superman franchise, and Brett Ratner (Rush Hour 1 & 2, The Family Man) took over the helm. Visions of Joel Schumacher ruining Tim Burton’s Batman movies started dancing in my head.
Capote (2005)
Capote
In 1959, Truman Capote learns of the murder of a Kansas family and decides to write a book about the case. While researching for his novel In Cold Blood, Capote forms a relationship with one of the killers, Perry Smith, who is on death row.
I must confess at the start of this review that I went into this viewing expecting the best. I think that Philip Seymour Hoffman is one of the best actors working right now, and find his performances enjoyable even in less than stellar movies. I also, generally, enjoy Catherine Keener, and I had heard that this movie was a knockout.
Continue reading →
United 93 (2006)
United 93
A real time account of the events on United Flight 93, one of the planes hijacked on 9/11 that crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania when passengers foiled the terrorist plot.
If you have not yet seen this movie – go.
If you have already seen this movie – go again.
If you are afraid to see this movie, don’t be. It is very respectfully done, very moving, and very palatable. This is not an action movie interpretation, it isn’t presenting any specific viewpoint, yet you do get a sense of all the things that went wrong and just how complacent we were. Just how complacent we are becoming again, BTW.
This isn’t a good movie for children, not because of the subject matter but because of the pacing. There isn’t a lot of overt violence to scare them and bad language is minimal. The movie, however, is presented more or less in real time and so young viewers, with no idea of what is unfolding, will be squirmy. For teens, it is a good movie to see, though their level of interest will be directly proportional, I imagine, to their knowledge of the events of 9/11.
For those of us who remember that day, the violence will be mostly in your memories – not on the screen. He does show us the towers burning, and we hear about the Pentagon being hit, but the focus is really on what is happening on flight 93 and with the military, ATC and FAA workers trying to deal with the unfolding tragedy. I found myself tearing up at times that I wouldn’t have expected – and not tearing up during the scenes you would expect to elicit the most emotion.
Really, truly – no matter where you stand politically, you should see this film.
When I say to GO see this, that is exactly what I mean – in a theater with a crowd of people. The experience is compelling. I have never been in a theater that was so quiet through an entire movie – not even candy wrappers crinkling. When the film ended and the lights came up, you could see in the faces of the other patrons the fear and the sorrow and the pride and the questions…
Rotten Tomatoes: Critics 91%; Users 89%