fu manchu, i choose you!

well not that fu manchu,

that fu manchu.
i mean, what other band travels through time just to rock the 80's?

as mentioned months ago, fu manchu was a band i've always been aware of, but didn't get into until recently.
back when i was eighteen or so, the band became a joke between a friend and i, not that we thought the band was bad or anything, we just thought their name was ridiculous and fun to say. the joke carried on long enough to the point were another friend bought me one of their pins for my birthday. i still wear that pin on one of my caps by the way.

anyway, in arizona i managed to get a hold of one of their albums. listening to it on the long drive home blew my mind. i couldn't believe i hadn't sat down to listen to them until then.

it's just stoner rock at it's best, or as their website puts it "music so good you will explode!"
if i had a band, fu manchu would be the main influence. they're that damn awesome.

so be sure to check them out, especially since they have new album coming out later this month.

coming soon....

top 19 albums of the past nine years
why nineteen?
well originally it was going to be nine...
but i couldn't narrow it down anymore.

sunshine

i honestly don't have too much to say about this movie, i''ve been a fan of danny boyle, ever since i saw a life less ordinary. and as a filmmaker he just keeps getting better.

this is a pretty standard sci-fi horror flick, the ship with the foreboding hallways, the voice of reason nobody listens to. the evil that's never really seen, everybody dies, and so on.

i'm going to break it into what i liked, and what i didn't.

like:
the visuals are quite nice, they did a great job making the sun look magnificent, awe inspiring, and i really love how it became an obsession to some.
the characters all had distinct personalities, and that all of them (well almost all of them) were willing to sacrifice themselves for the good of the team set the mood perfectly. much like in 28 days later, the actual "bad guys" were the military dudes, not the zombies, much like the chance of failing is the real enemy in this, not mr. brightside. it really gave the sense of urgency in completely their mission, how vital it was for mankind. i liked how the psychological aspects of space travel were handled with the earth room, and how the air was generated by onship plants. that's the future i want. the score was also beautiful, and some of it was done by underworld, with whom danny boyle fans should be familiar.

didn't:
the burninated captain of the first ship. not that his existence was wrong, it was a good twist and he was frightening, but the whole solar flare thing everytime he was around, at first it made sense, kappa's vision was messed up from looking into the sun room, but at the end it was just like, "oh come on!" although it is probably for the best you don't get a better shot of his skin sloughing off. his whole religious shtick did make him all the more frightening though.
the darkness of the ship, of course bad things are going to happen in dimly lit hallways! i can understand them wanting to show the lack of the sun, but they did that by eliminating warm colours from the pallet, i mean while florescents are bright, they're still cold, and more importantly artificial. brighten that ship up, no wonder why they were all so edgy.

in the end it was a enjoyable film, kappa's last moments were a bit grandiose, but hey he earned it. and i really liked the last shot of the sun coming back from earth.

four out of five

imdb

new to me

some great bands i've just discovered

florence + the machine

she's got a bit of a tori amos/bat for lashes vibe about her. a bit of kate bush as well.

cardiacs

on art brut's latest album they have a song about discovering the replacements.
i could write the same song about this band, seriously how did i not know about them until now?
that song is far more accessible than the rest of their stuff i've heard so far...
fucking brilliant music though.


new young pony club

cutesy synth pop with sexuality. i dig it.

brandon patton

he's a member of mc frontalot's band. his newer stuff is more exciting than this song, not that this song is bad or anything, just be sure go to his website, and check out the song rockets.

firewater

a folk punk band with a lot of influences from middle eastern and indian music, it's quite interesting, a bit like gogol bordello i suppose. this is my life is a song you must hear.

thar be wild things here

i've been excited about this movie for years. how great is it, that spike jonze got a hold of it?

to tide us all over until it finally gets released stereogum has the soundtrack up and streaming.
definitely worth checking out.

JCVD

despite what this trailer would have you believe, a majority of the film is in french. i posted it instead of the one in french, because it seems a lot from that trailer didn't make it into the finished film.
and now on to the review.


holy shit.
i mean, holy fucking shit.
i loved this movie.
it was advertised as a action comedy, a plot involving jean-claude as himself, an aging, down on his luck actor that get's mixed up in a robbery, and the cops assuming he's the one robbing the bank.
so i put in my queue,because it thought it might be zany and fun. and while there is a lot of comedic moments, that's not what it's about, it's not what i took away. and the only action scene was the opening when he was filming an action movie.
so yes, i was suspecting something lighthearted and fun, instead it's something i still have a hard time coming to grasps with, jean-claude van damme ripped my heart out. as an actor, he touched me emotionally, it's amazing, and i love him for it.
so this movie is mostly him being uncomfortable with his fame, and just him as a human.
the comedy comes from his fans, one of the bank robbers is a huge fan and just hangs out with him, there's a scene where van damme is feeding the bank robbers ideas the villains in his movies used, so it's kind of funny, but most of it was intense and stressful, these people are being held at gun point. meanwhile outside there's a media frenzy, because hey a stars snapped, and fans have showed up to say they still love him. it's goofy but not unrealistic. the scene that makes this all work is this six minute speech jean-claude gives, while sitting there with the other hostages, he levitates above the set, and gives this heart wrenching story of who he his, and how he feels.

just damn.
i love his existential crisis.
his dream came true, and yet he feels it's a hollow existence, he knows he hasn't changed the world in any meaningful way.

and there's something just great about an action star talking about how life is too beautiful to waste.

van damme aside, i was impressed with the movie itself. the action scene at the beginning is fun, the soundtrack is amazing, the colours, the way it's paced. it honestly makes me quite sad the directors first movie virgil, isn't available on netflix.

other than the speech, another great scene is near the end when the s.w.a.t. team comes in and jean-claude is taken hostage by one of the robbers, the film kind of skips and van damme uses some awesome karate moves to take down the guy, the crowd cheers and he high fives the s.w.a.t. guys, hilarious. then it goes back to the reality, nothing near as elegant or fun.
also the very end, while predictable was quite cute, and left the movie with the right tone.

the only other thing i can say about this movie is watch it for yourself, seriously.

five out of five

imdb

the fountain

this is a very visual movie.
i mean, i know movies are a visual medium, but here it's not only a character it seems to be the driving force of the movie, it is the movie.
so three different stories, one about a conquistador looking for the tree of life, one about a doctor that is searching for a cure for cancer (using rare jungle trees!) and the third is about some far out astronaut in a bubble with a tree that he's awfully affectionate with.
oh yes, and all three of these men are played by hugh jackman!

it takes awhile to get used to watching this movie and suss out what's going on, but here's the jist of it.
the conquistador is a story being written by the wife of the doctor, she has a brain tumor and is the main reason he's pushing himself so hard to find a cure. she's researching the book by learning about maya culture. she thinks it's neat they believe the orion nebula is the underworldbecause apparently there is a dying star inside the nebula and once it dies it will help create new stars. bringing new life through death, which is connected to the maya creation story, in this movie anyway.
and the major tom and his dying tree are physically off to this dying star to be given new life.

as for my interpretation, initially i thought perhaps the astronaut is just symbolic, a visual representation of the doctors quest through the movie. however given that this is a sci-fi and aronofsky said little of this is to be taken as just a symbol it is quiet possible that tom is in fact tommy the doctor. see in the course of his studies he finds a tree sample that at first didn't seem to cure the tumor, but instead made the the test monkey younger. eventually it did shrink the tumor but his wife was dead by then. "death is a disease and i'll cure it too!" his wife was ready to die, she was clam, collected, he wasn't ready to lose her. so had he really discovered the tree of life, then he would be the astronaut, which explains why he's haunted by the doctor's dead wife. as for the tree, it's possible it's from the seed he planted on her grave, but more likely he was just projecting her onto it. she had already been given new life, he was looking for a symbolic way to die, to be given new life himself, after centuries of being alone, he was ready to find her again.

the way the three stories all wrap up is nice as well, you see his wife never finished the conquistador story, wanting him to write the last chapter, so he finally writes it, just as the astronaut gets ready to embrace death. the conquistador at long last finds the tree of life, after ripping off the last crusade, it grants the conquistador eternal life, by turning him into a plant. okay, it is kind of clever, and actually fits in with the creation story they gave, and how the wife wants to be buried with a seed. so as the conquistador learns photosynthesis, the doctor goes to his wive's grave and plants a seed, and major tom finally dies in a supernova. and all parts of these overlap in odd ways, like the mayan priest sees thomas as tom, and the supernova can be seen as tommy plants the seed.

i held off writing on this because i wasn't sure how i felt, i'm still not. visually it's one of the most interesting films i've seen, it's really quite beautiful. yet it lacks character. izzie, the doctors wife is a good character, but we don't know anything about thomas and tommy other than than their obsessions, their drive. and neither of them are likable, thomas' men plan a mutiny, and tommy is just a dick. tom is far too removed from reality, although we do see his regrets, such as not going with izzie to walk through the first snow. too late did he realize he should have spent time with her instead of in the lab.

not the best film, i would however rewatch it if the mood struck, it also gits a bonus for it's visual language.

four out of five

imdb

it also somewhat reminds me of another visually impressive, universally panned film i enjoyed.