December 2011 Music Reviews

The Horrible Crowes, Elsie (2011)

8 out of 10; Best Individual Songs are "Sugar", "Behold The Hurricane", and "Black Betty & The Moon". The Horrible Crowes is an offshoot band of Brian Fallon's (the lead singer of The Gaslight Anthem) and the band is very similar to The Gaslight Anthem. It's a little bit darker and slower than The Gaslight Anthem and there aren't as many anthem type songs on the album. I thought there were some great songs on the album and a few duds midway through the album so it was a little bit disappointing. It isn't a bad album by any means though - just not as great as "The 59' Sound" and some of The Gaslight Anthem's other work.

Jay-Z & Kanye West, Watch The Throne (2011)

7.5 out of 10; Best Individual Songs are "Otis", "No Church In The Wild", "Murder To Excellence", and "Niggas In Paris". This was bound to be a disappointment considering the massive hype it had. There are a few amazing songs (namely "Otis") and then there are a quite a few songs that are just meh. This is definitely more of a Kanye West Featuring Jay-Z album too (which is not a bad thing). I would put "Watch The Throne" somewhere in the same league as "Graduation". It is nowhere near as good as " My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" and doesn't hold up well to further listening.

Florence + The Machine, Ceremonials (2011)

9 out of 10; Best Individual Songs are "Only If For A Night", "Shake It Out", "Seven Devils", and "Heartlines". Ceremonials is as good as Florence + The Machine's debut album and is really a wonderful album. The entire album has a bit of a dark, gloomy mood towards it that I really enjoyed. The album has a powerful feel to it that almost makes it feel Opera-like. There are a lot of tracks on the album (15 in total) which makes it a little long but that is a minor complaint. 

Chris Brown, F.A.M.E. (2011)

8.5 out of 10; Best Individual Songs are "Deuces", "Yeah 3x", "Next 2 You", and "Beautiful People". I think something that was forgotten in the whole Chris Brown saga is that the guy is legitimately talented and may be the best mainstream R&B singer working today. F.A.M.E. was a huge surprise for me and a terrific album. The pedigree of some of the featured artists are surprising too - Justin Bieber, Ludacris, Lil Wayne, Wiz Khalifa, The Game, etc. This might have been one of my favorite albums of 2011. 

Spring 2011 Film Reviews II

The Green Hornet (2011): B+

The Green Hornet is disappointing if one expects a deep, dark, and thrilling Comic book film. It’s not The Dark Knight or Iron Man or even X-Men. The most apt comparison for The Green Hornet is Seth Rogen’s 2008 comedy Pineapple Express or other similar comedies. The Green Hornet is far more concerned with being funny than being serious or believable. That holds The Green Hornet back from being a great film but it makes The Green Hornet a really fun movie to watch.

I can’t imagine The Green Hornet resonating with people that aren’t familiar with and fans of Seth Rogen’s comedy. I’ve loved pretty much everything Rogen has done starting from as far back as Freaks & Geeks. The humor is pretty much in line with what its in a traditional Appatow comedy. The Green Hornet was probably the funniest film I have seen in the last calendar year - which is unexpected considering the genre of the film. The fight scenes are absolutely hilarious and the banter between Kato and Rogen’s character is quite enjoyable. The funniest character in the film by far was Christoph Waltz’s Bloodnofsky.  His character is incredibly violent, cruel and heartless but at the same time self-conscious, attention craving and jealous. Bloodnofsky’s annoyance at not being famous or hated despite being far worse than The Green Hornet is enjoyable to watch.  The Green Hornet’s not really believable always but it’s a really fun ride (much like Kick-Ass).

The film is a bit over the top with violence. Rogen’s character Britt Reid and his sidekick (who does 99% of the work) seek out affiliates of a gang boss early in the film. They find a group of semi-menacing guys on a street corner and kill them before verifying even if they are actual gangsters.  Looking back after the film its confusing and kind of troubling but during the film its fun and humorous. The sheer body count of the film is partially what makes it so funny though. I would estimate the amount of people killed as a result of the heroics of The Green Hornet at well over a hundred.

Rogen does a perfectly acceptable job as Britt Reid in the film and if you think about it there is no reason that every superhero has to fit the same exact mold. Every major superhero is a young, athletic, smart, white man. Rogen is young and white but his character is somewhat fat, not that smart, and not at all athletic. The character of Kato was similarly good but not great. I did love Christoph Waltz as the main villain – a middle aged, eastern European, self-conscious mob boss. James Franco is also terrific in his five minute cameo in the beginning of the film. Also excellent is the actor who plays the District Attorney; the guy was great as a foil to Waltz’s maniac character and to Rogen. Cameron Diaz played a secretary who is also an expert in history and urban crime. Her character was uptight and shrewish and had capabilities that no secretary has ever had. It’s simply ridiculous to think that a Temp worker will be an expert in the fields that the character seems to be. Honestly it felt like the character was just shoehorned into the film so that the film could have another “name” actor. The movie would have been much better off without the Diaz character.

The whole conspiracy with the District Attorney, newspapers, and the Mob was a little hard to believe and all crammed into the final fifteen minutes of the film. I couldn’t understand how one small revelation could get the Reid character to switch his hate of his father to pure adoration. The character starts the film by beheading the statue of his late father and ends with him nearly dying for his father’s ideals. These flaws would be a bigger deal to me if The Green Hornet was a serious dramatic film. I’m willing to deal with minor continuity flaws if the film is consistently funny as The Green Hornet is.  

I understand why The Green Hornet had such middling reviews (46% on Rotten Tomatoes). The humor in The Green Hornet is strictly targeted towards a younger audience – I can’t imagine 62 year olds finding humor in the macabre of The Green Hornet.  Considering the numbers The Green Hornet pulled in at the box office – 98 million in the US and over 225 million globally a sequel would seem to be warranted. After all far worse superhero movies have seen sequels like the Fantastic Four, Hulk, and Ghost Rider. The Green Hornet fits a niche of a superhero movie that is actually funny and not overly sincere. 

The Green Hornet is far from perfect but it is never boring and always funny. To me a film is satisfying if it’s an enjoyable experience on the whole and The Green Hornet was an absolute joy to watch.

Spring 2011 Film Reviews I

Herafter (2010): A-

Herafter is one of the most touching movies I have ever seen and is near perfect for close to seventy percent of its run time. The film has three separate story lines that converge at the end of the film (much like Crash or Love Actually). The film follows three separate characters: George a troubled man with psychic abilities, Marcus a young orphan who has lost his twin brother to a horrible tragedy, and Marie a French journalist who has had a near death experience. When Hereafter is about Marcus or George it is mesmerizing - when it follows Marie it is mediocre. 

Matt Damon is billed as the lead of Herafter but he is really in only half the film. Damon plays George a psychic who can communicate with the dead. His character had used this ability to make a living in the past but has quit the business because of the emotional toll of constant contact with dead people. George’s brother tries to get him to move on from his low paying construction job and back into the psychic business but George refuses. George cannot make or maintain relationships with people and his gift (which he refers to as a curse) ruins a potential romance. George cannot have a normal life because of his “gift” and he seems to resent even having the ability.  

The second character in the film is Marcus. Marcus is the heart and soul of Hereafter. Marcus is a young child (9-12 in age) who lives with his junkie mother and twin brother Jason. Marcus and Jason are really more than brothers; their mother has seemingly no positive effect on the children and together they raise themselves. Jason is chased by a gang of hoodlums and killed when he is struck by an SUV (he has gone to pick up medicine for his mother). Marcus’s mother than gives up custody of Marcus for a year “until she is ready” and the boy is put into the British equivalent of Foster care. Within months Marcus has lost his brother and his mother who are literally the only people in his life. Marcus is like a dead child walking for most of the film. He has no emotion or heart – which is understandable considering the tragedies that have faced the character. Marcus makes it his mission to speak to his brother who he misses greatly. Marcus encounters numerous charlatans who are clearly just making stuff up about communicating to the dead. The boy grows more and more despondent over the course of the movie. One scene seems to suggest the possibility of a higher power when by chance Marcus is saved from the bombings of the London underground. Marcus meets Matt Damon’s character (who is a legitimate psychic) when the character of George takes a vacation/break from his life to London. George does not like doing readings – the character is hesitant to use his gift in the film and only uses it after intense pressure. Anyways Marcus runs into George and begs him to read him and George refuses. Marcus (who has nothing to lose really) stalks George back to his hotel and waits outside the building for hours. George finally offers him the reading Marcus so badly desires and lets him talk to his brother for one final time. The scene is heartbreaking and played well by both Damon and the young boy.

There is a third character in Hereafter who is a French journalist that has had a near-death experience during the Asian Tsunami. In my opinion this character brought absolutely nothing to do film and was just a distraction from the two other genuinely compelling stories. The woman named Marie is vapid and somewhat arrogant throughout the film. Her character was supposed to have had a life-changing experience but instead she came across as crazy and insane. The woman is dismayed when she is not featured on billboards and not on TV (her “problems” pale in comparison to the tragic life of Marcus). In one scene she sells a publishing company on the idea of commissioning a book about some French politician – she then proceeds to submit to them a book about a completely different subject. When the publishing company voices their surprise and displeasure she acts as if she has been persecuted (when in reality the company just wants her to give them the product she promised). The character eventually writes a non-fiction book about the denial of a hereafter (or afterlife) and how it certainly exists.

Hereafter is on the whole very calmly paced and is in no hurry to tell its story. This can be frustrating I guess if one wants an action thriller type film (which some may expect based on the trailer and first ten minutes of the film). I suppose the three story lines converging at once can be kind of hard to believe but it is a movie about the afterlife. You have to be willing to suspend some disbelief to enjoy the movie. What held Hereafter from being one of my all-time favorite movies is the French journalist storyline. Subtract that from the movie and it is near perfect. I have never felt more depressed watching a film than when I was watching the tragic life of Marcus. Its kind of frustrating to have to leave the engrossing story of Marcus and even George to go back to the minor troubles of some privileged French woman. A lot of credit to making the film so touching has to go to the Clint Eastwood (who directed the film). Its kind of funny that such a perceived tough guy like Eastwood is able to make such sad and touching movies like Hereafter and Changeling. Hereafter is certainly better than what its middling reviews would suggest (46% on Rotten Tomatoes) or soft box office numbers ($33 million domestic box office). I would put Hereafter in the top five of films I saw released in 2010 behind only The Social Network, The Town, and Inception.