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

Not So Crooked

Therapy?'s new album, Crooked Timber proves that they are one of the most underrated bands of any genre. Sure, they probably would have caved in and resorted to making one indifferent album after another had they garnered enough popular acclaim. The good thing is that they remain just in the outskirts of mainstream. They may not be happy about that, but as a fan I can't be happier.

There have been minor disappointments along the way, but Therapy? are propbably the most consistent band that I have ever followed or liked. I don't think there's any Therapy? album that I dislike. Surely, they should be my favourite band. For some reason, I rate Deep Purple, Megadeth, and Iron Maiden higher, but listening to their latest makes me want to reconsider.

It is not the perfect album by any means. Heck, it's not even their best album. But, what a fresh and original album it is! It is chock full of catchy tunes that I will be humming for months to come. If you haven't had a chance to listen to it yet, please do so - you won't be disappointed. It is by far the best album of the year. I'm
not biased at all.

Growing Appreciation

There comes a time in every grown man's life when he starts appreciating some of the bands on his iTunes library a little more with every new shuffle. Needless to say, I have found myself in the same conundrum and decided to peruse through my library to create a list of bands that I have learned to appreciate more over the last few weeks.

AGALLOCH - I had heard of this band before I moved to Portland, but I always assumed that they were just another Black Metal band. After hearing one of their songs on Pandora, I decided to download a couple of their albums. And what a revelation they have been. I can't stop listening to "Not Unlike the Waves" from their Ashes Against the Grain album. Atmospheric, folksy, beautifully melancholic - this is the band Ulver should have been. It makes everything sound pale by comparison.

ALCHEMIST - This Australian band are often regarded as the Metal's Best-Kept Secret. It is a bold statement, but it isn't far from truth. They sound like a heavy version of Tool with oriental influences taking the front seat. The intro to "Evolution 1 - The Bio Approach", from fantastically-titled Organasm, gives me goosebumps with every listen.

AMORPHIS - When I first listened to Amorphis in high school, I wasn't a fan of their death-metal growls. Over the years the band adopted a new style with clean vocals and more avant-garde arrangements. In college I couldn't get enough of Am Universum. Lately, though, I keep going back to their older stuff - especially the transition album, Elegy.

ANTHRAX - Let's get the obvious out of the way - Anthrax were the smallest of the Big Four of Thrash. And rightly so. They weren't as epic as Metallica, as musically-gifted as Megadeth, or as mind-fuckingly heavy as Slayer. But they were definitely the most fun. Listening to "Caught in a Mosh" again after all these years brings a huge smile to my face as I mosh in my own living room. By myself.

BAYSIDE - I have been introduced to this band by Bheeler. I thought they were pretty good when I first listened to them, but for some reason I never specifically went back and sought them in my library. Until late last year when "They're Not Horses, They're Unicorns" kept coming up on Shuffle. Now I can't get enough of the whole album - a very unique sound and style.

BRAND NEW - Another Bheeler band. When I was in my final year at Nottingham, "Sic Transit Gloria ... Gloria Fades" was a minor hit in the U.K and also had the most demented video this side of "Diane". I'm not big on emo and Brand New are as emo as it gets. But, what sets them apart is their progressive approach - The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me is an album worthy of comparisons with Radiohead's OK Computer.

ELECTRIC SIX - We all thought they were a joke - you only needed to listen to "Danger! High Voltage" and "Gay Bar". The accompanying videos would confirm this. The other day I decided to go back to the album that gave us such sophisticated songs, Fire, and was pleasantly surprised that Electric Six is more than a joke. Unlike the Darkness, they knew to pen songs that had depth and weren't afraid to stretch.

GARY JULES - After seeing him in all his 'high' glory a few weeks ago, it became apparent that I had to go back to Trading Snakeoil for Wolf Tickets. He will always be associated with his incredible version of "Mad World", but that album proves that he is a formidable songwriter on his own too. Highly underrated and underappreciated.

IN FLAMES - The most famous band to come out of the Gothenburg scene, In Flames were only a name until the Ozzfest 2005. They were the opening act for the main stage and were definitely one of the highlights of the whole day. Since then, I have slowly but steadily grown immense appreciation for this band. If you like your music melodic, heavy, and emotional then In Flames are ready to blow your eardrums off.

KOSMOS - They are not strictly-speaking a Bru band, but it never hurts to escape the norm sometimes. Their self-titled 2007 album and especially the song "Dream" are now perennial must-plays of the day. It's part Krautrock, part space-rock, full on trip-fest.

LIVE - Although I have grown a bit cold after the abysmal Songs from Black Mountain, I went into a nostalgic fervour after finding The Distance to Here somewhere hidden in a box. I remember headbanging in my dorm room with Rich as "The Dolphin's Cry" rocked from the stereo, reveling in the uber-coolness of "The Distance", and shedding a few tears over "Dance with You". Throwing Copper may have been their finest hour, but The Distance to Here is for me the quintessential Live album.

MANOWAR - Death to False Metal. Manowar are so easy to make fun of. Yet, there is no denying the fact that when it comes to writing some kick-ass and catchy tunes, there aren't many bands that can rival Manowar. Hail to England has lent many a song to my playlists of late.

PARADISE LOST - It's strange, but I paid to see Paradise Lost twice. It's strange, because until recently I have lived in ignorance of this amazing band. "Enchanted" from their breakthrough Draconian Times and "Fader" from their amazing Believe in Nothing only confirm that this is a band with immense talent. I now wish I had paid to see them more over the years.

PULP - Brit-pop was great. It filled the gap after grunge imploded and brought a much-needed cheekiness to the whole shebang. Pulp's origins go way before bands like Oasis and Blur became ultra-mega-super stars, but they are without doubt one of the key bands of the era. I always thought Different Class was a great album - perhaps one of the greatest pop albums ever. Listening to it again after ten years, I'm amazed how fresh it still is. "Disco 2000" has now become one of the most melancholic songs ever.

There it is. I have always kinda liked these bands, but now I appreciate them even more. Maybe in five years I will come up with a new list and a new group of bands that I tend to ignore (skip) during shuffle now. Who knows who they'll be?

Peace.

- The Bru