castle of cagliostro

what's not to love about lupin the third?
he's seriously my favourite manga/anime character.
in fact his whole crew is great.

the gang:

lupin III

unofficial grandson of the literary character, lupin carries on the title of the "gentleman thief". generally pretty goofy, but deep down serious and brilliant. he does however turn into a total fool around women.

jigen

jigen is the chain smoking, wisecracking, cynical gun man, and best friend of lupin. he's usually the voice of reason, well what little there is to be had in these stories. he seems to have fallen out of some film noir, and is by far my favourite character.

goemon

mystical samurai for hire and descendant of a japanese folk hero. i say mystical because he owns a blade that would put hattori hanzō to shame. he's the most silent and serious of the group.

fujiko

because where would we be without our femme fatale? fujiko is lupin's kryptonite. she inevitably backstabs the rest of the gang, it's always just a matter of time. not that she hasn't saved their goofy asses a few times. she's just driven by greed.

ah yes, and let us not forget

inspector gadget zenigata

the tenacious and buffoonish agent of interpol that always trying to arrest our hero. despite being on different sides of the law, lupin and zenigata actually do admire and care about eachother.


now on to the review....

i've always felt the lupin movies were fairly odd, the manga's were dark, but not without their humour, and the anime series were almost entirely comical. the movies always seem to be inbetween, lots of goofy stuff mixed in with the more dark and serious. there's usually a lot more sci-fi elements in the movies as well.

the plot of this movie deals with lupin searching for the source of counterfeit money that he ran into in one of his latest heists. thus we get drawn into a the drama of a cagliostros, and a secret of lupin's past. it's pretty standard as far as lupin movies go, however considering this was the most acclaimed of the movies, it likely became the mold for the rest of follow. i liked it, it wasn't anything amazing, however it was far from bad.
it's hard for me to not like anything involving lupin though.

i mean, how can you not like someone with such an awesome theme?

four out of five

imdb

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