Quantum of Solace (12a)
*****
If you like your Bond as a wise-cracking, family-friendly, ever-ready in turquoise undercrackers lounge-lizard, then this movie is not for you. Having got rid of the painful one-liners, the gadgets and the silly sex conquests in the last movie all that was left to go were the dodgy rave shorts and the too-prominent product placements... well, one out if two isn’t bad.
But, if you can bear a Bond who’s out for revenge after being duped by his lover, Vesper, and not taking any prisoners whilst battling with a shadowy organisation called Quantum plus annoying M to the point of diplomatic meltdown all the while executing (for want of a better word) eye-popping stunts and plot twists…this will be just your cup of tea.
Quantum of Solace follows on from where Casino Royale left off and so I suggest you watch the DVD before you go to see this one as you will need to know who’s who when it comes to the baddies and, despite the 12a rating, this is not a movie for pre-teens at all. While the graphic torture has been toned down, the stunts have not, from the opening car chase via boats, planes and exploding hotels this Bond delivers action. Curiously enough, Daniel Craig's version of OO7 is the first Bond that has actually made me want to pick up the books and read them.
WALL-E (U certificate)
Disney-Pixar
*****
Writer/director Andrew Stanton(finding Nemo)
WALL-E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter – Earth Class) is the only remaining robot left working away on the long-abandoned, rubbish dump that is future earth, spending his days compacting and stacking garbage with only a cockroach and a video of ‘Hello Dolly’ for company. That is until a space ship lands and EVE, a slinky robot on a mission to find out if Earth is habitable arrives, turning his world and heart upside down. Wall-E follows Eve back into space to the vast space cruise ship that is still home to humankind, seven hundred years after Earth was abandoned. Here, Eve, Wall-E and an assorted set of misfit robots help the Captain battle the ship’s autopilot computer programme which has been in control of the ship and the humans up till now…
This animation is a visual feast for the eyes and the beautifully written and directed storyline allows for vast chunks of the action to play like a silent movie – great slapstick comedy and action adventure and moments of pathos for the central character, Wall-E, a robot with a Charlie Chaplin character. The message, that modern life’s large scale consumerism and wasteful ways will ultimately be our downfall as we sleepwalk into planetary disaster is no bad thing either. The film is preceded by a hugely enjoyable short about a magician’s rabbit.
http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/wall-e/
Sweeney Todd - The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (18 certificate)
*****
Johnny Depp plays the barber Benjamin Barker, returning to London as Sweeney Todd and looking to avenge the wrongful death of his wife and the abduction of his daughter by the evil Judge Turpin (Alan Rickman) and his henchmen, the obsequious Beadle Bamford (Timothy Spall). Todd, back from deportation at the hands of Turpin, falls in with Mrs. Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter) and the pair set about dispatching their murderous revenge and using the bodies as filling for Mrs. Lovett’s pies… and all of this set to music and song.
Based on Stephen Sondheim’s musical, Tim Burton’s new movie is a robust, blood-drenched song-fest that grabs you by the neck and drags you back into murky Victorian London to bathe in the rivers of vengeance unleashed by Sweeney Todd’s razor blades.
Luckily Johnny Depp’s baritone never strays too far into ‘american-cockerney’ territory and there is just enough humour, such as the scene with a rival barber (Sacha Cohen Baron), to counterbalance the very bleak and bloody storyline.
Helena Bonham Carter’s Mrs. Lovett is a wonderful mix of scheming survivalist and desperate neediness as she tries to inveigle herself into Todd’s affections. Tim Burton’s trademark machinery and contraptions appear, think Edward Scissorhands and Charlie & the chocolate factory, in the guise of a giant mincing machine, pie oven and the cogs, wheels and machinations of the barber’s chair.
The sombre palette and distopian world view oozes, seeps, splashes, gushes and splatters its way across the screen in this odd marriage of music and murder. Not for the squeamish or those who hate musicals or those who eat meat pies regularly….
Don’t miss it if: you are a Tim Burton fan with a strong stomach.
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National Treasure: Book of Secrets (PG)
*****
The second movie for the treasure hunting Ben Gates, played by Nicholas Cage, sees him searching to clear his family name of involvement in the plot to assassinate Abraham Lincoln which culminates in searching for a lost city of gold.
The movie falls into two halves, the first featuring intrigue and mayhem across Paris, London and America including a great car/truck chase but the second half changes into an ‘Indiana Jones’ style adventure sequence with the historical plot complexities left behind as it becomes a treasure hunt on a grand scale.
That aside it is an enjoyable action adventure with the main characters forming a likeable dysfunctional family unit arguing through their differences to save the day. With the cast including Helen Mirren, Jon Voight, Ed Harris and Harvey Keitel it is hard not to enjoy this movie.
http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/nationaltreasure/
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Street Kings (15)
*****
This ‘renegade cop on the edge’ thriller is full of solid performances from a cast featuring Keanu Reeves in lead role. Reeves does what he does best and submerges himself into his character, Tom Ludlow, a policeman trying to solve his partner’s murder which he has been implicated in, allowing the rest of the cast to turn in good performances as dirty cops on the make in a cut-throat LA.
Forest Whitaker steals the show and while on paper Hugh Laurie (House) seems a strange choice for an internal affairs cop, once you stop chuckling over his first appearance being in a hospital scene, you get to remember what a good actor lurks under all that tv comedy.
The pace is absorbing and the plot solid enough to make this worth a trip to the cinema with one caveat, this film was somehow given a 15 cert when clearly both the visible and implied violence should have given it an 18 cert. (As such I’m deducting a star from the rating.).
www.streetkingsmovie.co.uk
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Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the
Crystal Skull (12a)
*****
A fun family-friendly romp through familiar territory if you've already seen National Treasure: Book of Secrets or read Manda Scott's The Crystal Skull. Enjoyable but not necessarily memorable. Cate Blanchett's baddy is unconvincing, but who cares, all eyes are on Harrison Ford anyway.
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Kings of Leon
Only by the Night
http://www.kingsofleon.com/
*****
The guttural vocals, spectral lyrics and pared-down dance-rock of the Followhill’s latest album blend thematic American blues-rock (think The Boss /The Cars) with a Gary Numan-like electric ethos. If you’ve already downloaded Crawl, Sex On Fire and Use Somebody, try Closer, Revelry, Manhattan and Cold Desert
~
Phil Campbell
After the Garden
www.philcampbellmusic.com
www.myspace.com/philcampbell
*****
‘After the Garden’ is an album of lessons learnt and a life that took a few wrong turns on the way, with songs that are both uplifting and infused with the melancholic regret afforded with hindsight. A soundtrack for this summer if ever there was one, you’ll be wanting Cold Engines, Maps and Same Old Me on your MP3.
~
The Black Crowes
Warpaint (Silver Arrow Records, Inc.)
www.blackcrowes.com
*****
With artwork that ties in to the interactive graphic on their website, the new album ‘Warpaint’ comes complete with poster-style sleeve notes and a groovy flag sticker (not sure whether to go stick it somewhere or leave it in a geeky ‘one-day this will still be in mint condition’ way…) and, despite more and more bands releasing straight onto the internet for download, I like the CD format, the tangible object that neatly encapsulates the album, safely held forever in it’s own portable frame of reference.
The magpie in me likes to collect theses shiny slices of human experience, the designer in me recognises the artistic merit of album sleeves and the geek in me hopes to understand a little better the musical content of those flat little square boxes.
While the first track, Goodbye Daughters of the Revolution sounds the most mainstream and commercial, I loved the 70’s jazz overtones of Walk Believer Walk, the electro-rock of Evergreen, the lighter, paired down sound of Locust Street and the stonking version of God’s Got It (expect jitterbugging at festivals all summer long) but it wasn’t till I reached Whoa Mule that I fell in love with this album.
Download the lot, it’s all great and I’m leaving the sticker exactly where it is….perfect!
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RadioheadIn Rainbows (XLCD 324)
www.radiohead.com
*****
After all the hype around the release of this album last year (the ‘download for a price of your making’ website now unavailable – presumably enough money was made), it was hard to know whether it would be worth visiting so long after the event. Certainly the last album, 'Hail to the Thief' hasn’t managed to capture me yet, so, with trepidation, I opened the rather elaborate cd wrapper and pressed play.
This surprisingly airy album visits older Radiohead territory with songs like ‘Nude’ but also moves on from and builds on 'Hail to the Thief'. The deft touches that lift the music beyond the bleak/oblique lyrics make the album feel summery, despite the biting cold outside the window.
So far three tracks stand out from the rest:
Nude- Like Radiohead playing in the freezing palace in Dr. Zhivago.
Weird Fishes/Arpeggi – (how I wish that had an o) Uplifting and awash with rhythm flowing like light through water.
House of Cards – Laidback, with ‘The Shadows’ style.