Bond, James Bond?

My family has a long running appreciation for the James Bond series of films. I mean, part of the reason I’m named Sean is because of Sean Connery. I think I’ve seen the most Bond films out of the Cat Fancy crew, but you can never be too sure with that Colin. Anyway, with Quantum of Solace (ugh) out this week, and without the willpower to put together a retrospecticus (plus there are plenty of Bonds I haven’t seen), I thought I’d just run through what I thought about Casino Royale, and what I’d hope to see in the new film.

First of all, I think it’s important to understand where Casino Royale is coming from. It is a reboot of the franchise, a complete reimagining of the character. I certainly went in to the theater that fateful November evening expecting to see a younger version of the superspy, but that simply is not the case. In fact, the new 007 has very little to do with that classic character.

James Bond films, to me, mean high tech gadget and classy kills. Casino Royale had neither, in fact, one of the series staples, Q, was completely absent. Too bad, because John Cleese had just gotten that role a few films earlier. Gone too were the witty little remarks that we all grew to love over the years, when this Bond kills someone, it’s taken very seriously. Indeed, when on the job, this 007 is very rough and tumble, engaging in gritty chases and straightforward gunfights.

Beyond all the questionable character changes, Casino Royale is not a very good movie. I remember leaving the theater disappointed, but confident that this was a competent action flick, but upon a second viewing, it is just not very good. Something about classy, rich people playing Texas hold’em really bothers me. That they interupt the card game several times so characters can go kill people is ridiculous. The love stuff is so hammy it’s painful to watch. And then there’s the stupid emerging from the water scene. Damnit Craig! Didn’t you see Die Another Day? It’s the woman who emerges from the water, you dolt!

Casino Royale did have some touches that hinted towards this Bond becoming a character we better recognize. They were able to work in the classic gunshot opening, at the end of the film he finally says “Bond, James Bond,” they make references to Money Penny and “shaken, not stirred,” and he’s becoming increasingly unable to connect with women. Hopefully with Quantum of Solace, we’ll see the character develop more in this direction.

I’ll probably end up seeing this soon enough, but I don’t want to deal with opening day crowds. I’ll go into it skeptical, but hopeful to see Danile Craig become the character I want him to be. If not, at least I’ll get to see the new Star Trek trailer, now there’s a franchise you can’t mess up by modernizing. Oh wait…

C.A.T: Days of Future Passed

The Moody Blues – Days of Future Passed (1967)
Birthed out of Birmingham in the early 60s, The Moody Blues were originally just another R&B cover band. Breaking out in the U.K. with the 1964 single “Go Now”, The Moody Blues had obtained some moderate success but didn’t really standout from any of the other British Blues based bands of the time. Juggling through several management firms, even leading to the departure of the band’s original bassist Clint Warwick and lead singer/guitarist Denny Laine, (Who would later join Wings) The Moodies signed guitarist/vocalist Justin Hayward and bassist/vocalist John Lodge finally forming the lineup for a classic rock group.

The band had decided upon a vastly new psychedelic approach along with a hint of classical stylings to create one of the most unusual and if I will say “Epic” albums of it’s time. Working off of the concept of “An average man’s day from dawn to night,” The Moodies put together some trippy pop tracks, but it felt somewhat lacking. So who better to fill that void than the London Festival Orchestra? Who would provide backing instrumentation and to fill the gaps between every song.

The overall effect of this at the time risky move, proved to be simply stunning. With lush ballads accompanied by a booming orchestra, it sounds like it could be the soundtrack to a 60s sword and sandal epic… Aside from the references to modern London life. These songs are all perfectly suited for the smorgasbord of strings and brass that’s been piled on and it really like a rock symphony.

Every member contributes singing and song-writing duties to this album and all prove to be talented contributors. Mellotronist Mike Pinder pens some of the album’s more melancholy numbers such as “Dawn is a Feeling” while flutist Ray Thomas generates a much more positive up beat style on songs like “Another Morning”. Bassist John Lodge includes a more pop/rock styling while guitarist Justin Hayward proves to be the group’s strongest contributor with the radio friendly hits “Forever Afternoon (Tuesday?)” and the band’s future defining hit “Nights in White Satin”. The band’s drummer Graeme Edge doesn’t write any songs, but creates an element that would later become a staple of The Moodies’ sound with a introspective poem following the album’s overture and finale. The members make for a fairly unique and cohesive group of collaborators and the overall sound makes for some out of this world pop.

Listening to this whimsical record you can’t ignore the flawless producing of the Tony Clarke, considered as “The Sixth Moody” he would go on to produce all of the band’s albums. The album took awhile to find a following, but come round 1972 The Moody Blues took the U.S. by storm with the re-release of their single “Nights in White Satin” the rest is history.

This album’s definitely had a significant impact on me as I’ve probably used the whole album as background music in some of Cat Fancy’s video productions. I often find I like listening to it before I go to sleep, to whisk me off into the land of dreams and sand… Hey maybe I’m a poet but just don’t know it, Moody Blues cover band anyone? Of course I keed but yeah this is a unique piece of music that definitely deserves some more recognition.

Favorite Tracks: “Dawn is a Feeling”, “Nights in White Satin”, “Peak Hour”

The Effects of Please-Kill-Me

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – The Effects of 333

Browsing the web a few days ago, I was looking to see what a handful of my favorite modern bands were up to. Sifting through Wikipedia I came across Black Rebel Motorcycle Club’s page to find they’d released a new album. I hadn’t heard anything about it but that’s because it had been independently released via their website earlier this November. I was excited to give it a listen but once I got it I was just down right confused. I should’ve known better once I found out the album was not just instrumental but a foray into a sad excuse for industrial music.

Known in the past for their Alt-Country stylings, most notably the 2005 hit single “Ain’t No Easy Way”, BRMC developed a rootsy rock style but on this album that’s completely thrown out the window. There’s no sense of any kind of musical creativity or ingenuity here, as a matter of fact it’s hardly even music. When I heard instrumental I set myself up for a bunch of heavy jams and sweet riffs but this isn’t even that, it’s just 50 minutes of dry ambience. There’s probably only one song that actually has an actual composition in it while the rest is spacey white noise. I don’t know if this is supposed to be some sort of artistic statement or what but saying this is an album and then charging people for it is just insane.

Reading up on the group I noticed that BRMC has once again been reduced to a duo with drummer Nick Jago’s second departure but that hardly matters on an album like this. There is no sense of a cohesive rock band here. There’s no sense of actual humans playing instruments, aside from very sparse guitar.

It feels like a total rip-off, but I can only imagine how pissed people that actually paid money for this are. BRMC are advertising some piece of shit experiment they made and selling it to people without giving them a chance to preview the tracks. Seriously, what a bunch of douche bags. This isn’t even as good as those Halloween CDs you buy for a party that make ghost noises. Simply put this sucks, this sucks mass.

Extended Solo

It has recently come to my attention that one of my most anticipated movies of the fall, The Soloist has now been moved from it’s November release date to March 13, 2009. Yes a movie that has already started it’s trail of promotion and been described as potential “Oscar Bait” will now be moved by Paramount Studios to meet their 20 something films a year agenda. At least that’s all I could find out (I assume a studio can only push so many different films during Oscar season)

This totally gets me down and though I of course have not seen the movie had a strong feeling it would be a nice addition to this Oscar season. It practically had oscar nominations written all over it with it’s oscar craving star Robert Downey Jr, talented award winning co-star Jamie Foxx and it’s director in Joe Wright, whose last two films (Pride and Prejudice and Atonement) had their fair share of nominations. So I’m pretty bummed that I’m gonna have to wait to see this, but it also got me to thinking about the jerks that make up the academy.

The fact that a movie now has to open in late fall to early winter to get nominated at all is bullshit. Of course there are exceptions every once in awhile, but the fact that a movie that let’s say opens in January or February, could never be nominated for any major awards no matter how good they are. Zodiac was easily one of the best movies I saw last year, but due to it’s March opening wasn’t even considered. I’ll bet you if it had opened in December it would of had nominations and when you look at it like that, the Oscars are kind of a cheat. They’re not about giving recognition to the best films of the year, more just the one’s that are prepped for the oscar season. Don’t get me wrong, I like a lot of the fine crafted dramas that open up in November and December, but I think there are too many quality pictures falling through the cracks. Even the critically praised The Dark Knight has to theatrically reopen this winter to get attention from the Academy, and that’s messed up.

Hopefully I can take solace in some of the other pictures coming out, but with now The Road and The Soloist moved to 2009 it’s beginning to look like a less exciting Oscar season, at least for myself… I mean who knows, maybe those films wont even end up being that good, the fact they were moved must indicate something we don’t know about… It’s hard to say and even harder to take in.

Brotherly Love

Role Models

Wow two back-to-back reviews featuring films with Elizabeth Banks, she’s literally everywhere, but what really drew my attention to Role Models was none other than Paul Rudd, who’s finally made the transition from comedic chum to leading man. Making a name for himself these days in Apatow produced projects, co-writer/star Paul Rudd actually manages to snatch up a couple of other Apatow players including; Jane Lynch (40 Year Old Virgin, Talladega Nights), Joe Lo Truglio (Superbad, Pineapple Express), Ken Jeong (Knocked Up, Pineapple Express) and McLovin himself Christopher Mintz-Plasse for plenty of foul mouthed tomfoolery and awkward male bonding.

Rudd plays pessimistic energy drink spokesperson Danny Donahue who along with his rowdy co-worker Wheeler (Seann William Scott), travel from school to school telling kids to get off drugs and drink “Minotaur.” Soon enough Danny realizes he’s going through a mid-life crisis and after a few bad decisions, including crashing a truck into a statue, ends up along with Wheeler, with the choice of either being part of a big brother program “Sturdy Wings” or getting raped in prison. Going with the former, Wheeler ends up with a foul mouthed troublemaker Ronnie (Bobb’e Shields) while Danny becomes the mentor to an awkward role playing obsessed teen named Auggie Farks (Played to a tee by Christopher Mintz-Plasse) and the laughs start a rolling in…. At least they do eventually.

Role Models actually starts out fairly dry. Mostly filled with dirty jokes and predictable setup, I thought I was in for your average mediocre comedy, but by golly after a good 20 or so minutes this really took off. I mean by the last 40 minutes I was as we like to say at Cat Fancy “All About it” with the performances really setting in, the jokes picking up and even some tender little heartfelt moments for everyone to enjoy.

There’s some really wacky stuff here, with some of my favorite quirks being the frequent references to Kiss such as a scene where Seann William Scott plays the song “Love Gun” to his little buddy, “You see Ronnie, the gun is his dick.” and that’s just a little taste. Meanwhile Rudd and McLovin (as I like to call him) go through some equally hilarious misadventures while playing the live action role playing game “L.A.I.R.E.” (Which stands for Live Action Interactive Role-playing Experience) that everyone seems to take a little too seriously. There was also a reoccurring joke regarding this really lame song that Paul Rudd kept trying to convince people was not by Wings. “No that song is not by Wings, that song is by nobody.” I mean that kind of off-the-wall dialogue really tickles my fancy.

The film’s formula follows some pretty familiar waters, but as these characters start to open up and the story develops, I was highly entertained. The climax, which is a final battle in “L.A.I.R.E.” was non-stop hilarity and I definitely left this film with a smile on my face. I just wish the first half hour or so wasn’t so weak because the rest of the film makes for some solid comedy. Rudd and Scott make for entertaining and relatable leads and all their co-stars manage to bring plenty of silly scenes to the table. Role Models’ unfortunate unevenness probably doesn’t raise it too high above most comedies, but there’s definitely some comic gold buried deep within and if it still doesn’t grab you, than at least you can get lost in Paul Rudd’s eyes.

Han Solo Ain’t Never Had No Sex With Princess Leia in a Star War

Zack and Miri Make a Porno

Of all the Kevin Smith movies I’ve seen, and that’s just Clerks, Dogma and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, I’d say Zack and Miri Make a Porno could be the best. Let me explain why.

Elizabeth Banks, in one of her eight movies this year, plays Miri, and Seth Rogen Zack, her lovable loser roommate. They’re broke, and running out of options. After an embarrassing high school reunion, Zack and Miri decide to capitalize on their class mailing list by making a porn film. But will sex forever change their friendship? I think you can guess where this is going.

This is one of the most sexually explicit films I’ve ever seen, maybe the most. Couple that with all the foul language the characters spew out, and I can understand how they had to fight this down to an R rating. But more important than the dirtiness of the dialogue is that it is funny. And it is. Ebert compared the dialogue to that of Mamet, and that easily comes to mind becaue they reference Glengary Glen Ross, but it makes sense too. These characters speak this kind of heightened language, and it works. There’s a great comedic… poetry to it. I feel like this was one of the better comedies of the whole year.

I think Kevin Smith did some fine work here, the story is charming, funny, and shocking. The soundtrack was a lot more pronounced than I was expecting, even with a few “music scenes,” if you know what I mean. The film is very sharp, and probably Smith’s best work as a director, writer, and editor.

The cast really brought it too. This is probably Seth Rogen’s best performance. Elizabeth Banks is cute, and continues to demonstrate her versatility. Craig Robinson is hilarious as usual. Justin Long has won me back, he’s fantastic here. It’s amazing how far Jason Mewes is willing to go. Everyone here is on their A-Game.

Zack and Miri Make a Porno is vulgar, explicit, filthy movie. That could be an acceptable reason for lots of people to avoid it. But if you’re old enough, there are enough laugh-out-loud moments and the actors are so good that this should not be missed.

Here Comes the Cavalcade!

Hey just thought I’d hit you up with some quick news about this and that. The Killers released another single this week “Spaceman”, which is the other song they played on their last SNL appearance. I managed to find a free download deep within the womb of the web and definitely dig it, I can’t wait for their new album due out November 25th which is the same week that Coldplay will release their new 8 song E.P Prospekt’s March. I also heard on 107.7 that there are plans to possibly release a new Nirvana dvd from one of their live shows. Krist Novoselic supposedly described this show as one of the coolest experiences the band ever had. Unfortunately I’m yet to find anymore on this story, but hopefully more info will surface soon enough.

On to my main focus of this blog, Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane’s latest animated venture. Starting last September, a new series of animated shorts called “Seth MacFarlane’s Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy” (distributed by Burger King) premiered on Seth MacFarlane’s YouTube channel “SethComedy”. There’s a new one roughly every week (last time I checked they were on the 11th video) and they’re basically just one to two minute animated shorts about everything from “Jeff Goldblum Wafers” to “A Scotsman Who Can’t Watch a Movie Without Shouting at the Screen”. Basically it’s just like watching a collection of the “Cuttaway gags” on Family Guy but they all have that Family Guy charm. It’d probably be nice if they were a little longer but perhaps that might wear out the jokes in a few segments. I really don’t know how this went without me noticing until now, I think Burger King should of advertised this more aggressively but whatcha gonna do.

I hope everyone has a fine weekend, after all that’s what were all working for. For your enjoyment I posted the first segment of McFarlanes web series .. Remember to keep an eye out for these, they’ve planned to release 50 shorts all together.