I Want to Believe

Although I am in the process of marathoning my way through Season 1 of "The X Files", this blog is not about that show. I just wanted to borrow its tagline, which is arguably the most iconic of them all in TV-land. This is not about alien lifeforms, or paranormal activities in rural America either. This is about my restored faith in all things metal.

I have just finished listening to Megadeth's new album, Endgame. Dave Mustaine claims it to be their best since 1990's seminal Rust in Peace (in my opinion the greatest and the best heavy metal album ever. Word.). The latest issue of Classic Rock claims it to be their best since Youthanasia - the pop metal classic from 1994. I don't agree with either statement, but it is by far the best album they've made this decade. Bands like Mastodon and Opeth have been making outstanding albums of late and the old-school thrash bands are gaining new momentum: last year's Death Magnetic by Metallica kicked some serious ass, despite the poor audio quality; Testament's "come-back album", The Formation of Damnation is as good a thrash record as you can get, Slayer is releasing a new album this year. Only Anthrax seem to be unable to rid themselves of an ongoing soap opera involving their vocalists. Megadeth, or more particularly Dave Mustaine, have been churning out decent albums every few years and the results are always a tad disappointing, knowing how good they can be.

The latest from 'Deth restores my faith in metal and in Megadeth in particular. It is an aural blast that not only manages to be relevant, both musically and lyrically, but also harks back to the olden golden days of metal. It starts off with "Dialectic Chaos", their first instrumental since "Into the Lungs of Hell", with which it shares the grrove. Mustaine and Chris Broderick, the new recruit, spar off in shred heaven for two and a half minutes. By the end of it, you are already exhausted - in a good way! The following tracks, "This Day We Fight!", "44 Minutes" and "1320'" are classic Megadeth up-tempo blasts. It prepares us for a handful of songs that would stand proud next to any of their 80s or 90s classics: "Ride the Hand" with its subtle(!) political lyrics rocks and rolls naturally, "Bodies" has some of the cleverest lyrics Mustaine ever wrote, "Endgame" with its anti-Patriot Act lyrics and insane solos is a classic-in-the-making, "Head Crusher" starts off with a bruising shred solo by Mustaine and never lets up, "How the Story Goes" and "The Right to Go Insane" wouldn't have been out of place on Youthanasia. One dud is the proto-ballad "The Hardest Part of Letting Go ... Sealed with a Kiss". Megadeth dabbled in ballad territory twice before with mixed results. For every sublime "In My darkest Hour", there is the cringe-inducing "Promises". "The Hardest Part ..." oscillates between the two, but leans more towards the latter.

Will Endgame earn new fans to Megadeth? No. Will it go number one like Death Magnetic? Sadly, no. But will it stand the test of time and be regarded as one of their best albums in a decade or so? Oh, yeah. They were never really gone away, but somehow this album marks their comeback. Welcome back, boys. And thank you for restoring my faith in metal.

Pecae.

Superciliousness and Unprofessionalism on Both Ends

In Response To Kevin's Facebook Post
(and the ensuing series of comments which Kevin
just removed from his facebook page)
regarding Josh Olson's blog rant: "I Will Not Read Your Fucking Script"
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/archives/2009/09/i_will_not_read.php

I see both perspectives: I can actually empathize with where Olson is coming from (to a certain degree), despite his superciliousness. It’s a Catch 22 for anyone (regardless of how successful they are in the industry) because if someone asks to read your stuff and they a). don’t send you a polished piece, and b). they say they want honest feedback but in reality can’t handle blunt criticism, you either look like an asshole for saying no in the first place or an asshole when you give honest feedback that the person can’t handle. The problem isn’t just in how much time it takes to read the piece, it’s also in the time that is spent trying to formulate just the right notes because you don’t want to offend the author.

What really annoys me is when Wheeler tells someone he’s an aspiring screenwriter and inevitably Joe Schmo’s response is: “Oh yeah, I’ve always wanted to write a screenplay. That would be cool.” Talk about ignorant and disrespectful! You wouldn’t say to an architect “Yeah, I’ve always wanted to design a house. I think I could do it as well as you can.” You guys have spent your entire careers working your ASSES off to get to the point you’re at, and it’s not about merely “writing a story”; this is part of who you ARE. These idiots who think they can do it without the proper training are what give the true screenwriters a bad name. I think one of the key statements that Olson makes is “Which brings us to an ugly truth about many aspiring screenwriters: They think that screenwriting doesn't actually require the ability to write, just the ability to come up with a cool story that would make a cool movie.” THIS, my friends, is what makes you stand out amongst the rest (by the way, if this guy had been working on it for a freaking year why the hell did he only have a 2 page synopsis?!?).

HOWEVER, I do not believe this gives Olson the right to act so high-and-mighty that he can make such broad generalizations and say that he will only help friends and not any of the young, aspiring talent out there. Like Bru pointed out, he was once in that position, and not everyone is blessed to be born into “the industry” or automatically have the “friends” necessary to get your stuff read. I agree with Wheeler that as screenwriters, one of the best philanthropic things you can do is to help other young talent (and I will qualify this by saying ones who are qualified to have their stuff read—not just some guy off the street with a story, but for example, someone who has their MASTERS IN SCREENWRITING). When you get to the point where you think you’re too good or too busy to give back to society in any small way possible, it’s time to reevaluate your life.

Public Enemies

Michael Mann’s Public Enemies is meek, directionless and out of touch with its period, its characters and its audience, and yet it’s hardly the worst thing to grace theaters this summer. As massive a misfire as this Johnny Depp vehicle is, it is still at its worst the work of accomplished cinephiles slacking off.

I imagine it’s hard for a director such as Mann, working in territory so similar in theme and character to his masterpiece Heat. You either risk critique by repeating yourself, adhering to the same successful formula that elevated you before, or you can distance yourself from that formula as much as possible and hope for the best. Mann chose to do the latter here, and it hasn’t worked out as you’d hope.

Heat, if you recall, was a cat and mouse approach to crime that pitted Robert DeNiro’s smooth criminal against Al Pacino’s hard-nosed, all business crime stopper. There was a criminal team of friends, and a girl for whom DeNiro would risk it all. Public Enemies offers up the same game pieces, with Depp as smooth criminal John Dillinger, Christian Bale as hardnosed G-Man Melvin Purvis, a strong group of character actors as the team, and Academy Award winner Marion Cotillard (she of “this really is a city of angels!” acceptance speech fame) as the French beauty Dillinger would risk it all for.

What’s missing, however, in a striking and unforgiveable way, is the character insight and depth that made Heat so commandingly engaging. Back then, we spent hours with both DeNiro and Pacino, digging into their souls, discovering what made them tick, which, as it turned out, was essentially the same thing. Back then, Mann didn’t need to pick a side, a perspective – he found a loophole in the bond these two opposites shared at the center of it all.

You’ll find no such insight here, no choices, no discoveries. Instead, Mann does the opposite, distancing us from both men, never allowing or forcing us to choose a side or giving us anything to lay claim to. Public Enemies is a 140 minute history book, complete with vague interpretations and one-dimensional pictures.

And yet, remarkably, it spends little to no time on the actual history of the period in which this story takes place. Dillinger and his men ran wild during The Great Depression, a time that would seem to run extraordinarily parallel to our own, and yet apart from the rare one-off scene of poverty and despair, we get only fancy cars, fur coats and spiffy hair. To contrast this lifestyle with its immediate surroundings would have been interesting, and timely. But Mann looks to make no such point here.

Instead he focuses on the gunfights, creative camera work and closeups (of which there are many) and inspired Dillinger moments of ballsy genius (of which there are a few). For the most part it isn’t bad – the actors float through, but look good doing it. The writing is lazy, but it can also be fun. And the period work – what we see of it – looks great.

Unfortunately it all leads up to an ending that, while historically accurate, leaves us cold and unfulfilled. And that about sums up the film as a whole – it knows the facts and sticks to them well, but loses track of the story in the process, and thus ends up being very average and middle of the road. Dillinger would not be proud.

Updated Summer Blockbuster Smackdown Standings:
1. Star Trek
2. The Hangover
3. Up
4. Drag Me To Hell
5. Public Enemies
6. The Taking of Pelham 123
7. Terminator Salvation
8. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
9. Angels & Demons
10. X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Interest: Zero

Year One
There are movies that are so bad they’re laughable (like Transformers 2), and then there are movies that are so bad they’re almost painful to sit through. Harold Ramis’ Year One is the latter, which is sadly ironic considering that had it been the former, it would at least have gotten its job done.

Written by Ramis and the scribe team of Gene Stupnitsky/Lee Eisenberg (from TV’s The Office), Year One is a messy example of what happens when a bunch of really talented, really funny people come together to show each other how funny they are, forgetting that the people they’re really meant to entertain aren’t interested in self-congratulatory ego-shining and lazy comedy. Picture a bunch of clowns running around in a circus ring for 97 minutes with no direction or purpose, armed only with hand buzzers and fart jokes – that’s pretty much this movie.

Which isn’t to say there isn’t the occasional laugh to be found; how could there not be. But cheap laughs are especially cheap when they’re served up as fine dining. Year One plays like a gag reel, with one tired joke leading into the next, never building toward or really being a part of anything bigger, or better. In the process, it takes bit comics and beats their routines into the ground, leaving a trail of worn-out “ha ha-s” in its wake.

Take Michael Cera for example: here the straight man to Jack Black’s animated blowhard. His unique, mousy delivery is comic genius, but it plays best off its minimalism – never has it been better than in small doses on TV’s Arrested Development, or as a mirror of teen uncertainty in Superbad or Juno. Year One uses it to prop up a whole damn movie, whittling Cera down to nothing, and finally hanging him upside down and forcing him to pee himself (no joke).

Black, on the other hand, is already an embarrassment. Like Cera, he’s best as comic relief. Unhinged as the leading half of this history-exploring duo, he’s such a bludgeoning force of stupidity that it’s only a relief when he’s not onscreen.

And so it goes, with one comic showing up to do nothing but deliver stupid lines in their own special comic way. Oliver Platt, Paul Rudd, Hank Azaria, David Cross, Christopher Mintz-Plasse – one by one they fall victim to the pointlessness.

But what’s most worrisome here is what’s off screen – rumors of Ghostbuster III, to be written by the same team. Ironically, when watching this disaster I found myself wondering how much better this movie would have been had 80s era Bill Murray been in the Black role. Now I find myself frightened by the prospect of these guys teaming up with Bill Murray circa 2010. Even Murray can’t escape a movie with nothing to say (newsflash – Meatballs sucked).

But then again, surfacing from this crap you can only move up. Updated Summer Blockbuster Smackdown standings:

1. Star Trek
2. The Hangover
3. Up
4. Drag Me To Hell
5. The Taking of Pelham 123
6. Terminator Salvation
7. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
8. Angels & Demons
9. X-Men Origins: Wolverine
10. Year One

10 Albums That Caught the Bru's Attention from 2009

We're halfway through 2009 and it's time to ponder what I have been spinning on my iPod this year. Without further ado, here's the "10 Albums That Caught the Bru's Attention from 2009" in alphabetical order:

The Weirding / Astra
Leading the so-called Second Wave of Psychedelic Prog and hailing from the sunny San Diego, Astra are treading the Pink Floyd of the Meddle era. Atmospheric and instrumental jams are framed with soothing and melancholic vocal harmonies. I have a feeling that it will be very hard to top it this year.




200 Tons of Bad Luck / Crippled Black Phoenix
Another band that worships Pink Floyd, CBP is the brainchild of former Electric Wizard drummer Justin Greaves and Mogwai bassist Dominic Atchison. Along with a troupe of musicians from bands as wide-ranging as Iron Monkey and Gonga, the duo's new album is a wonderful and bizarre mixture of Pink Floyd and Faith No More. Weird and awesome.


Black Clouds and Silver Linings / Dream Theater
Subtlety has never been the forte of Dream Theater and this is another same old same old. However, when the same old is this good there's no reason to argue. The band again go to territories that other musicians fear to tread and come up with an uber-masculine slab of progressive metal. Though lacking a clear-cut classic, the band are still on the right track.



21st Century Breakdown / Green Day
The follow-up to the massively successful American Idiot was worth the wait. Green Day managed to milk four singles from that album and it looks like they can repeat the feat again. Barely. If American Idiot was Tommy, then this is Quadrophenia. The three-act structure, pretentious it may be, adds a little seasoning to the proceedings and Green Day still manage to be relevant.

Wavering Radiant / Isis
Oh, post-rock. You gotta love it. With each album Isis get a little more progressive and blur the distinction between the genre they have spearheaded and what they actually play - progressive music with a hardcore edge. The vocals are more upfront and the arrangements more taut. All in all a very good album that should propel them to mainstream success.

Journal for Plague Lovers / Manic Street Preachers
Manics are back! Using the lyrics Richey Edwards left in his journal and going back to Jenny Saville for the cover, this is a quintessential Manics album. Dare I say it's their best effort since The Holy Bible? I think I will say that - the angst is back with a hint of melancholy and longing. It's like 1994 all over again.


Octahedron / The Mars Volta
This is Mars Volta's "unplugged" album. Perhaps not an accurate description, but you get the idea. It's an album with more "Televators" and "The Widow" than "Inertiatic ESP" and "L'Via L'Viazquez". John Frusciante takes a more central role and his influence is obvious. This could very well be the most important release in the band's history and I'm curious as to what direction they will take for their next one.

Crack the Skye / Mastodon
Rasputin. Astral travel. Stephen Hawking. These are just some of the themes from the Atlanta four-piece's new album - perhaps the most important metal release of the year. They seem to get better with every release and I haven't got a clue how they will top this. I'm taking what I said back: this will be the album of the year.


Amor Vincit Omnia / Pure Reason Revolution
Taking a more electronic approach (perhaps anticipating Muse's new album), this is quite a shock knowing what these guys used to be like. I have to admit it took me a while to get over the beats and techno-like passages, but once you peel away all of that, there appear songs of quality that could rival their first release. "Deus Ex Machina" is my favourite song of the year so far.

Crooked Timber / Therapy?
The boys from Belfast are back with a bang. Their previous effort, One Cure Fits All, was pretty anonymous. With this new release they got their mojo back with a Joy Division-inspired brilliance. The title track and "Exiles" are haunting songs that should feature in their live set for years to come. They are a cut above the rest and they deserve to be so much bigger.


There will be a few more albums that I'm sure will creep up into this list by the end of the year. Clutch, Muse, and Aerosmith are just a few of the bands that are set to release new albums and from what I've heard from the new Clutch album, it sounds amazing. Oh, it's on.

Model Recall

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

As I stumbled out of the theater after a 150-minute cinematic bludgeoning at the hands of director Michael Bay, 30-foot robots and a leering, incoherent plot, I wondered to myself how a movie with so much money/popularity at stake could be so poorly executed. What went wrong? Why was it so long, so thoughtless, so…bad?

“Because it’s just. So. Stupid!” my fellow moviegoer exclaimed. A more accurate description there never was.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is nothing short of a big, loud, dumb disaster. You might wonder what I expected it to be. As a fan of the original, I thought I knew exactly what it would be – big, loud, dumb fun. Reckless and childlike, 2007’s Transformers was fueled by a youthful quest for simplistic imaginative fun, specifically in the form of talking, transforming robots, big action, playful banter and pretty girls. It nailed all those things, and it did so with unchecked exuberance.

Transformers 2 is what happens when that imagination remains unchecked, by reality, by growth, by boredom. What went wrong in the sequel? Maybe we should start with what didn’t.

The robot vs. robot action is better. Much better. America’s boy Shia LaBeouf is still likeable, if not any more grown up. And the girls are still pretty – Megan Fox is back, and Bay’s looking to start a similar sensation with new girl Isabel Lucas. And the visuals/sound are top of the line.

Everything else though…not so much. Whereas story logic was an acceptable causality in the first flick, the overcomplicated story here forces it front and center. The story itself is clumsy, manipulative and generally uninspired – props, settings, even characters appear and disappear whenever it’s necessary for them to. And the “twists” are just lazy reruns of better ideas. Everything from Terminator to Thundercats is ripped off here, not just in story event but in overall concept. It’s as if Bay and his writing team of Ehren Kruger and Roberto Orci (the latter so far removed from the splendor of Star Trek) simply ran out of ideas, so they threw a bunch of crap at a canvas and called it entertainment. The story in Transformers 2 is all splatter paint and papier-mâché, and it’s made for an ugly collage.

So it’s no surprise we don’t care about any of it. Why should we – Bay never needed us to care. He just wants us to ooh and ah at his fireworks, laugh at his passing characters and their passing remarks and leave wowed by the experience of it all. The problem is, we don’t. Sure, kids might enjoy this. But anybody with something resembling a matured attention span will take this in with a yawn, at best. At worst they’ll recognize it as a very cluttered, very expensive scrap heap. This isn’t a movie – it’s a compilation. And that’s not what we’re here for.

Bay seems to have a problem with sequels – Bad Boys II is somewhere on the list of Top 10 Worst Blockbusters ever. T2, meanwhile, finds itself near the bottom of our Summer Blockbuster Smackdown pigpile. Updated standings:

1. Star Trek
2. The Hangover
3. Up
4. Drag Me To Hell
5. The Taking of Pelham 123
6. Terminator Salvation
7. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
8. Angels & Demons
9. X-Men Origins: Wolverine

The Hangover

In 2003 Director Todd Phillips gave us Old School, a rip-roaringly funny insta-classic that also managed to kick-start a new era of man-child comedy. 2004 brought us Adam McKay’s Anchorman, 2005 Judd Apatow’s 40 Year Old Virgin, and every year since then someone from their new-wave comedy crew has continued the trend, laughing their way to millions of satisfied Box Office dollars. DVD shelves across America are filled with worn copies of their movies, and none will feature a more prominent place in the years to come than The Hangover, Phillips crowning achievement.
The concept behind this movie is so basic, so generic, it’s hard to believe that a.) the story isn’t already worn to the bone and, as a result, b.) there’s any more blood to be eked out of it. Phil (Wedding Crashers’ Bradley Cooper), Stu (The Office’s Ed Helms) and Alan (underground comedy sensation Zach Galifianakis) bring their buddy to Vegas for a bachelor party, proceed to get blackout drunk and wake up the next morning without him. Two days before the wedding, the groom is MIA, and the guys can’t remember a single thing that happened. What ensues as they retrace their steps in an effort to relocate him is the “what happened last night” kinda flick that you can find produced at almost every film school every year…and yet something completely and sincerely different.
Despite all its seemingly intrinsic misgivings, The Hangover feels fresh, unique and ironically memorable. This is one of those magical cinematic events where everything comes together. The script (by Ghosts of Girlfriends Past team Jon Lucas and Scott Moore) gets a lot of laughs and a lot of mileage out of “guys being guys” humor, yet never feels vulgar, and rarely even stumbles into toilet humor. They’ve managed to take something so uniquely male as a bachelor party and make it (close to) equally appealing to a female audience.
Their characters feel familiar yet not generic, largely because of the superb casting. Cooper is smugly charming, Helms sincerely dorky. But it’s Zach G. who steals the show with his oddball antics. He’s Phillips’ new Will Farrell, more eccentric, less leading-man. Together the three have an easy chemistry, a new generation of stooges you want to invite to every party.
It’s Phillips, however, that guides them and the script to comedy genius, and more than anything this is his movie. The Hangover is everything you want from a blockbuster laugher – accessible, appealing and non-stop funny. It’s a repeat viewer, and it’s threatening to top this year’s Summer Blockbuster Smackdown. Updated standings:

1. Star Trek
2. The Hangover
3. Up
4. Drag Me To Hell
5. Terminator Salvation
6. Angels & Demons
7. X-Men Origins: Wolverine