Be careful what you wish for...

Perhaps among the most visually impressive movies ever made...

...What with the gradual transition from black and white to colour... element by element, and especially considering it was created in an age before CGI; There is nothing, even by today's technological standards, that looks like it, feels like it, or will make your jaw drop and make you go: "Wow! ... how the hell did they do that?!!!"

But this visual extravaganza is not simply there to dazzle, it is a vital story telling device, which makes a point in a way like no other movie does...

...For it tells the story of David (Maguire), an awkward high school teen geek, who's a little on the outside of things, and in escaping the world of his contemporary 90s teen zeitgeist, for which he feels no affinity, spends his free time watching an old black and white TV series from wholesome 50s America: Pleasantville, where he finds the model nuclear family he so sorely feels the absence of in his real life; A fact further compounded by his polar opposite super "popular" sister Jennifer constantly antagonising him in the classic sibling rivalry dynamic.

That is, until one day, while having a bust up over who gets to use the TV for the evening, they break it and a mysterious TV repairman shows up (oddly), and gives them a rather unusual remote control...

...Both of them being promptly zapped into Pleasantville, and black and white, where their modern nineties attitudes may not be entirely compatible with fifties American life (or this, idealised version of it, at least).

By degrees, their presence (Jennifer's in particular) upsets the quiet and tranquil life of this small, and pleasant land, and much to the horror and amazement of the locals (characters) a little colour starts to get introduced into their existence, and things threaten to never be the same again.

But does the influence of the world they have invaded begin to affect them, as much as they have influenced it?

What would seem a simple, perhaps superficial movie hanging on one great idea for a visual plot device, is actually rather profound, well considered, socially razor sharp in it's observations, and I stand by my previous comment, of it being up there with 12 Angry Men, as being a movie everybody should watch.

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WhyNow review - 2/5 :read:

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WhyNow review - 3/5 :read:

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WhyNow review - 3/5 :read:

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WhyNow review - 4/5 :read:

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Guardian review :read:

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Independent review :read:

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Independent review :read:

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WhyNow review :read:

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I’d had the tickets for this for almost a year, a gig I was really, really looking forward to. Overall…it was hugely disappointing.

The band sounded lifeless and flat, absolutely no swing in what they were doing, almost like they were going through the motions or being held back from cutting loose by something, a very dull performance.

I’m also not much of a fan of fretw@anking, extended guitar solo’s etc. leave me utterly cold. But…I know Isbell is a very talented guitarist and I love his style of playing. Why therefore did I have to watch sideman Sadler Vaden take what seemed like endless, pointless guitar solo’s that added absolutely nothing to the songs ?

Then there was the sound. On the whole the mix was good but the drums were treated in a way that they sounded like a drum machine rather than real drums. Isbell as I’ve said is an incredibly talented guitarist, particularly to my ears on the acoustic guitar, but the mix on his acoustics was shrill and tinny and verging on painful to listen to.

Please bear in mind I’m a huge Jason Isbell fan, I have been since his days in the Drive-By Truckers, so for me to walk out of a gig of his after an hour when I’ve not had the opportunity to see him for 5 years is a big deal to me. It just felt like we were all wasting our time being somewhere none of us wanted to be. A real shame.

Setlist here

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I watched this as part of my ménage a un Shocktober season of horror films. Based on the description I thought this would be another rip-off of Carrie, but it far exceeded my expectations.

Overweight, teenage butcher and hunter, Sara (played by Laura Galán) is bullied by her seemingly more attractive and popular classmates. She is nicknamed Piggy. After a chance encounter with an almost mute maleweirdo at the swimming pool her classmates start to go missing.

This isn't a film for the ages like Halloween or Dawn of the Dead. It is a violent slasher film bordering on the torture porn subgenre of films like Wolf Creek and Calvaire (The Ordeal). The film captures the mentality of small town gossip. The film is helped immensely by some effective cinematography that captures the Spanish countryside and convincing acting. Laura Galán could be one to watch for the future, but how many times have we said that? Jamie Bell, anyone?

Well worth a watch as a shocking, effective horror, but doesn't innovate.

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I have to say I disagree with this review from the Independent :erk:

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Annotation:

Authorhouse is an American self-financing publisher. While noting that the lyrics of Beatles' songs are primarily about human relationships, James seeks to place the words in the context of a spiritual journey in her Christian faith. The author employs the now over-used contrivance of using song titles for chapter headings, but in her case they tie directly to the meaning within, whether it be finding faith in oneself ('I'm A Loser') or faith in the power of forgiveness ('Hey Jude'). Simple, straightforward and devout, the book is nothing more than what it claims to be. Not a research tool, per se, but of interest in the way the Beatles' work is found to have meaning by the individual receiver of it in ways the group probably could neither have intended nor have imagined, so not without value to the researcher.

Melissa Davis

Source: The Beatles Bibliography: A New Guide To The Literature - Michael Brocken and Melissa Davis (The Beatle Works Ltd., 2012), with acknowledgement, and used here with permission from the authors for educational and historical purposes only.

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This may be either the best of times, or the worst of times to watch this masterpiece...

...As it's subject has never been more relevant to the times in which we live, nor more difficult to watch, because of it.

It hits hard.

I had it marked down in my brain as one I'd like to watch when it came out, mostly thinking it was a social satire / commentary, but it is more than this... it's a deeply tragic, yet rousing story of a widowed man who gets tangled in the Kafkaesque limbo land of the benefits system, after suffering heart attack, and cannot work.

Caught between two stools of having been signed off from work based on medical advice on the one hand, for which he applies for disability benefit (and for which he awaits the outcome of the dreaded assessment of undefined (bogus) "Health service professionals" and their sterling "professional" opinion and judgement) on the one hand, but also applies for job seekers allowance / universal credit... the apathetic and indifferent system of course, sees a contradiction for which he is to blame, or is responsible for resolving.

Having a limited understanding of the modern bullshit system after a lifetime of working, he of course, struggles and strives against the machine...additionally burdened (and indeed disabled, in this context) by his rather antiquated expectations of common sense, common decency, and morality in this vacuous meat grinder, all the while, he still needs money to live.

There are some good souls about though, an enterprising neighbour, a kind and sympathetic job centre worker, among a couple of others... but mostly it is the friendship he strikes up with a young mother and her two children, equally caught within the quagmire of the unforgiving slough of despond, that defines the rest of the story... After an incident in the job centre, causes him to step forward and attempt to intervene on their behalf... getting them ejected from the building as a result.

There is perhaps, too much here that will be too true, and so too raw for many, and even I find myself churned up inside and tearing up at a social commentary movie...

(Usually I'm hard as nails, and reserve my tears only for soppy rom-coms, beacuse I'm tough like that! :)

...Overall, a sublime and brilliant portrait of an unsung, everyday hero as he battles Bureaucratic Dragons.

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Ezra Furman's review for the Independent :read:

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WhyNow review :read:

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A terrible era for film begets a film that is so bad it's...well, laughably bad. Or, as the producers might say, Laughable Bad 2. (they don't know an adjective from an adverb, do they?) Enough time has passed to where we can start embracing...erm, rather, enduring the grade-z mush that filled the VHS shelves at the end of its cycle. Welcome to a world where a 6-star rating is equal to a 1-star rating. It depends on your tolerance for camp. Recommendation: life is short, watch something else.

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City AM review :read:

Black Adam review: A slick but forgettable superhero romp

The latest DC spectacular is a film conjured by the internet, with Dwayne Johnson linked to the role by eager fans since at least the mid-2000s. The former wrestler’s armour has been slightly dented by the failures of Jungle Cruise and Red Notice last year, can Black Adam put him back on top?

Set in the fictional country of Kahndaq, Johnson plays Teth Adam, a former slave bestowed with superpowers who is imprisoned for 5,000 years when he uses those gifts for vengeance. Awakened in the present day, he has little interest in being the saviour of his home, but protects the mother and son who released him as they are terrorised by a military force. With superhero team The Justice Society looking to imprison him on the orders of Amanda Waller (Viola Davis), Teth Adam must decide if he is the world’s reckoning, or its guardian.

The character is linked to the Shazam films, but clearly intended to reinvigorate the stuttering DC Universe. Disappointingly, there’s little here that distinguishes itself from the many comic book movies already available. There’s more magical items, more mythology to digest quickly, and another vaguely foreign city to save. Director Jaume Collet-Serra plays it safe, delivering a story that has explosions in all the right places, but nothing distinct.

The central moral conflict, where we question whether the Justice Society are actually the good guys, feels reminiscent of Marvel’s Falcon and Winter Soldier, but nowhere near as nuanced. Being content with formula means that the script’s insistence that this is a new kind of hero feels laughable, particularly when the film reportedly cut some R-Rated deaths intended to establish the character’s vindictive streak.

Like Henry Cavill in Man of Steel, Johnson is better than the film that surrounds him. The most electrifying personality in Hollywood is muffled by a deadpan persona in the first half of the movie, only warming up as he bonds with likeable young co-star Bodhi Sabongui. The Justice Society give it their best, with Pierce Brosnan the standout as Dr Fate.

He may get hammy toward the end, but noone can accuse the former 007 of not taking his role seriously. Newbie heroes Atom Smasher and Cyclone (Noah Centineo and Quintessa Swindell) are a sweet duo, while Sarah Shahi is the film’s heart as a resistance fighter who uncovers Adam’s prison. Aldis Hodge’s Hawkman is burdened with a lot of moralising dialogue, but gives the film purpose in between CGI battles.

Black Adam is a standard superhero movie, executed sleekly and designed to bring the most bang for your buck. However, despite the best efforts of Johnson, it may be a film that’s only remembered for its explosive mid-credits reveal.

James Luxford

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City AM review :read:

A surprise hit internationally, Barbarian has come out of nowhere to become a modern cult favourite. Set in Detroit, Georgina Campbell (Broadchurch) plays Tess, a woman in town for a job interview who has booked herself a rundown Airbnbstyle property.

Upon arrival, she finds Keith (Bill Skarsgård) is already there, a double booking from another app. With a storm coming and few options, Tess chooses to stay with this mysterious stranger, who turns out to be the least of her worries after she makes a discovery in the basement.

It’s difficult to discuss Barbarian in too much detail as its appeal lies in subverting your expectations; every horror movie convention is soon torn up and thrown away by director
Zach Cregger.

As with many of the best horror films, the premise prods at real life societal problems – in this case, the everyday safety concerns facing women. The parallels becoming less subtle as the film goes on, and while most of the plot holds together the final act goes a little over the top on
the allegory front.

Barbarian overstretches, trying to wrongfoot you every step of the way. However, Cregger’s invention and timely themes make it a shocking breakthrough hit for a promising new name in horror.

James Luxford

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WhyNow review :read:

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Annotation:

Richie Unterberger is an excellent popular music researcher and all his works require serious attention from the popular music scholar. He does not write in an 'academic' way, as such, but his research is undoubtedly of academic quality. For example, here, an enormous amount of material has been examined by Unterberger: from unreleased studio outtakes, BBC radio recordings from 1962-1965, live concert performances, home demo recordings, fan club Christmas recordings, and other informal demos partially-completed away from EMI studios. The work also includes chronological entries for all Beatles' unreleased recordings of note from 1957-1970, as well as all thus far unreleased video footage from 1961-1970 together with information concerning outtakes from 1990s interviews filmed for the Anthology. Furthermore Unterberger provides a general overview of Beatles bootlegs, Beatles songs recorded by other artists in the 1960s, and never-recorded material. This is therefore an excellent example of a piece of quality Unterberger research.

As far as bootlegs, go, perhaps Doug Sulpy provides the 'final word' on such issues; nevertheless we have here a highly detailed look at the songs in a mature fashion. Unlike many Beatles-related discographies, this is not just a dry list of what is (or might be) available. Each track or session is reviewed on its merits. There are details of the way in which certain recordings differ from their EMI counterparts, which versions of BBC recordings have good, bad, or indifferent guitar solos, and which concerts are listenable or dire. Reference tables including songs performed at BBC and Get Back sessions, a list of alternate mixes, and a short and essential list of live recordings which are of great use. Information on sound quality of recordings will be of especial use to collectors. Also, at the end of the book, is a list of the songs the Beatles gave away. This information is a welcome addition to our knowledge of the subject. In addition, the author dispels some myths along the way by discounting rumours of the existence of certain songs. As with all Unterberger volumes (Beatles or otherwise), this is highly recommended.

Michael Brocken

Source: The Beatles Bibliography: A New Guide To The Literature - Michael Brocken and Melissa Davis (The Beatle Works Ltd., 2012), with acknowledgement, and used here with permission from the authors for educational and historical purposes only.

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Warning, This contains Male Sexualty and Nudity. If You didn't like "Brokeback Mountian" or the New Film "Bros" then this Is not for You. You should check out His other Film "Don't Worry Darling"

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It is very hard to listen to this cd and survive!

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"A gold mine for avid fans"
"A fulsome biography set during a crucial period of the iconic musician's life"

Kirkus Reviews, November 2022.

Book review magazine Kirkus Reviews provide an overwhelmingly positive analysis of The McCartney Legacy Volume 1: 1969-73

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This band from San Diego played many concerts with famous bands. They only released this testpressing and never made an official record.
The music is absolutely perfect Fuzz guitar psych with great rhythm guitars, organs and St. Pepper-style vocals.
With more luck this band could have been as famous as Strawberry Alarm Clock or Steppenwolf. They played on many bills together.
The music is not as soft. It has a much stronger output than most of the famous bands the played together with.Every song a hit.

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WhyNow review - 23/10/22 :happy:

★★☆☆☆
Dwayne Johnson has been teasing Black Adam for years and it’s finally here, but it turns out to be mostly a dud.

There was a time when superhero films were the exception. They were new, exciting, and at their very best, were playing with genre conventions and doing something unexpected.

Not anymore.

Now, we get several superhero films a year, not to mention countless TV shows on various streaming platforms. They’ve become the rule, not the exception, which almost automatically makes them less exciting. At the end of the day, most of them follow the same old formula of a hero’s journey; they struggle with their powers and encounter a powerful enemy that nearly defeats them until ultimately tapping into something more profound to save the day. Ta-dah!

Jaume Collet-Serra’s Black Adam, on the surface, tries to offer something different. It’s been a passion project for its star, Dwayne Johnson, who promised that the anti-hero’s arrival would ‘change the hierarchy of DC’. Unfortunately, Black Adam succumbs to the genre’s worst tropes and isn’t aided by the baffling, near-incompetent editing.

The story takes place in the fictional land of Kahndaq. After a brief prologue that explains how Teth Adam (he’s not called Black Adam yet, but patience, dear reader) was born, the action moves to modern days. Adrianna (Sarah Shahi) is looking for a mystical crown that once divided the people and is incredibly dangerous if it falls into the wrong hands.

Adrianna manages to awaken Teth Adam from his slumber, but boy, is he pissed. Teth Adam has no problem killing anyone and everyone in his way, which sends the Justice Society – Hawkman, Doctor Fate, Atom Smasher and Cyclone – to Kahndaq, where they clash with Teth Adam. Obviously.

First things first, there is a lot to like in Black Adam. Dwayne Johnson is impossibly likeable and has a magnetic screen presence. Pierce Brosnan as Doctor Fate and Aldis Hodge as Hawkman are also compelling, especially Brosnan, who brings a sense of esteemed and renowned dignity into the film.

But Black Adam feels incomplete; it’s rushed, narratively messy and badly edited. Director Jaume Collet-Serra struggles to find the right balance of tone and story beats to focus on and Black Adam often feels like one continuous action sequence and that’s not a compliment. The action, too reliant on CGI, tries to imply violence without fully committing to it.

Black Adam has been posed as a more violent, darker entry into the post-Zack Snyder DCEU, but if anything, this feels like a return to Snyder’s style of filmmaking. There’s his signature religious imagery, a lot of the action is played in slow-motion, and the greyish colour palette, meant to evoke angst and seriousness, comes across as dull. Visually, Black Adam might be one of the ugliest films of 2022.

What makes it even more frustrating is the infinite amount of potential the film has. Black Adam’s best scene is when Adrianna tells the Justice Society off for storming into her homeland and kicking up a fuss now that Teth Adam is causing havoc, but they haven’t done anything in the past 27 years that the country has been in conflict.

It would have been a meaty angle to write your film from, but it’s quickly abandoned. Collet-Serra, an outstanding director when working with the right material, struggles to let his style bleed through, but there are some strong individual moments here. More than anything, Black Adam seems to just set up the future of the DCEU, but I must say, it doesn’t look very good.

Words by: Maria Lattila

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Annotation:

Tony Bacon was previously editor of Beatles Gear, while Gareth Morgan is a professional bass player and teacher who contributes a regular 'Bass Workshop' column to Guitar magazine. This superb text is not only well written, but also beautifully produced with a coherent layout. The authors have completed a first-rate job of presenting McCartney's muse and music. Indeed they are able to show to bass players and Beatles fans, alike, just how the dynamics of his bass playing have contributed to the development of his songwriting. Not only is it a first-rate bass tutor, but is an informative and reliable historical text, to boot; as such this is a highly recommended text.

Michael Brocken

Source: The Beatles Bibliography: A New Guide To The Literature - Michael Brocken and Melissa Davis (The Beatle Works Ltd., 2012), with acknowledgement, and used here with permission from the authors for educational and historical purposes only.

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oh, *please* would you add a genre/publishing category of ''rubbish'', oc?

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''even jove nods.''

not every item on wikipedia is always and invariably factually correct:

if you bother to compare the contents of the two books, you may find this is one of those occasions.

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The Beatles and the songs they gave away to other artists

A new book highlights this little-known aspect of The Beatles' career

Alan Wilson, Liverpool Echo, 9 October 2022

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more drink than food - and more sfnal tall tales, puns, etc. than drink. . .

lovely entertaining stories in the ''competing raconteurs in a bar tradition'', with an added inclination towards puns...

- puns, and peanuts. . .

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Very emotional dramatization of Chile's own 9/11 in 1973. A valid demonstration of political extremes from both sides destroying innocent people, as seen through the eyes of children, to illustrate the point. Throughout most of the film, the story is told effectively, although near the end Gonzalo returns home and stares at the renovation going on in his home - which conveniently provides a broad contrast to the horrors he just witnessed by Pinochet's military. I didn't feel it was necessary to make such an obvious conclusion about the social class division, particularly at such a crucial part of the film. That critique aside, Machuca is a moving story that takes place during a tragic episode of Chilean history, putting the spotlight on an event that is rarely addressed (and was actually more horrific than the film reveals.)

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I imagine this was an effective thriller in 1960 for drive-in audiences, as well as the kids on Saturday afternoon matinées. Two dinosaurs and a caveman are awoken from a sleep state in the Caribbean Sea by construction workers on an island. One dinosaur is kid-friendly, the other a bloodthirsty Tyrannosaurus Rex, while our Neanderthal is mostly played for laughs.

The dinosaurs are fairly effective on their own -- much more convincing than Godzilla several years prior - but when those dinosaurs have to appear onscreen with humans, the difference in film stock make the rear-screen projection look ridiculous. Not that there's any shortage of absurdity in the screenplay, like little Julio's conversations with the endearing Brontosaurus, or love interest Betty singing to our hapless troglodyte, or the clumsy lighting that casts massive shadows in all the night scenes.

Yet for all its faults, Dinosaurus! still manages to entertain. It isn't so poor that you can't turn off your brain and just go with it.

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Still hot after all these years!

Every now and then I come back to watching movies like this again, if I haven't seen them in a while, and they never disappoint...

...In fact, they seem to get better with time when set in context of the movie industry progressively getting, well, if not worse, certainly more formulaic. And I do have a penchant for the movie adaptations of stage plays: A handful of actors in a room or few rooms, hashing out the issues between them (this is why, I suspect whodunnits, submarine movies, spaceship - based horrors and the like works so well... now with added humans! :)

Perhaps the quintessential Tennessee Williams set up, of big old country house in the South, every body hot, bothered, sweaty, and therefore more likely to pop a fuse or two around hitherto unspoken issues bubbling away inside them... result: It all erupts, dialogue, argument, fights, drama!

Centring around Paul Newman's: Brick, and wife: Maggie "The Cat", returning back to be with his Brother and "family" at the family pile to welcome home "Big Daddy" after investigation into his "Spastic Colon" at the hospital... A surface of big house family unity disintegrates slowly under the tension between a temporarily disabled, and steadily more alcoholic Brick (after he hurts his leg trying to relive glory years late at night on the track, while drunk), his wife Maggie, who is trying to keep him on beam for appearances sake, if nothing else, and the tension between them, and his brother's family, and both brothers and their families simultaneously trying to disguise issues in their families, keeping it all from the master of the house, whilst also trying to undermine each other.

The vultures are circling Big Daddy and most specifically, his vast estate.

...But he may have ideas all his own as a consequence of his recent illness.

It is actually, more of a Father / Son "Daddy issues" movie at it's heart, with other attendant family dramas in the periphery, but it all plays out superbly with a bang on cast, making for an all time classic.

If you've not seen it before, It's a max recommendation... If you have, might be worth watching again.

Along with The Hustler, my favourite Paul Newman film.

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A review by Dianne Foreman in a local fanzine the following month:
'The Doctors got onstage fairly late which was a disadvantage as many people had to get buses home, etc., but there were about three rows of us standing in front of the stage and quite a few onlookers scattered about. The band came on to cheers and opened with "Doctors Of Madness" letting everyone know what they were in for. Then came "Into The Strange" which came over really well and brought cheers from the audience, as did most of their material. The new songs from the forthcoming LP were met with a little caution but everyone seemed to like them. I would say that the most popular songs of the night were "Brothers" / "Suicide City", "Waiting", "Cool" / "Waiting For The Man" and their encore and recent single "Bulletin" (this is judging from the cheers, participation etc.)
The Doctors themselves were in great form; Kid Strange made some magnificent poses and expressions while keeping the vocals and guitar coming strong. Stoner moved across the stage sometimes like a cat, sometimes like he was in pain but always keeping the bass going. The drums had a real bashing (at one point a cymbal fell over) from the ever-energetic Peter Di Lemma, and Urban Blitz kept the music coming from his violin and guitar, though he did appear to have a short rest during part of the set. The standard of all the songs was incredible, and if the new songs didn't go down as well as usual it was because the audience was stunned by the quality.'

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I never thought Tom Arnold was very funny. I gave all of his stuff a chance, but not until True Lies did I ever see his shtick work. Despite that, I expected "The Stupids" to be what most people think it is anyway: stupid.

I was dragged to the cinema to see it by a couple of friends. One of them thought it was just OK, the other thought it was the worst film he'd ever seen. The latter friend, however, still laughed because during the movie, one man in the back of the room laughed hysterically at every joke, every gag. It was a great, infectious laugh and forced you to laugh along with him. Oh, there was only one other person in the theater...yes, it completely tanked at the boxoffice. Me, I thought the whole affair was brilliantly...stupid. That's kinda the whole point, which goes over most people's heads.

My tastes rarely align with the folks who listen to bland pop music, watch reality shows, read People magazine, or wear the latest fashions. If you're one of the Joneses, don't expect to get much from this under-appreciated John Landis satire. If you color outside the lines, however, you might wanna give this one another try, if only for "I'm My Own Grandpa".

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Yeah, not bad, surprisingly chucklesome! The big guy seems to be getting the hang of this!

OK, not perfect and surprisingly violent at times for this genre but really enjoyable. 8/10

:happy:

1 person found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Nobody's Favourite Genesis Album.

This has a curious place in the Genesis discography, being, at best, much maligned, at worst denounced, but mostly ignored, it seems...

...And let's face facts, it isn't the greatest album ever made, and would probably come somewhere pretty low in the ranking of Genesis albums.

That said, feeling the beginnings of another Genesis kick coming on, I decided to listen to this whilst doing a little gardening today, and for the most part it's actually got a lot more going for it than is often given credit for...

...The Title track is quite a compelling work out for the band, and with Man On The Corner, No Reply At All and Another Record being fairly strong Genesis tunes, it's mostly a good album anyway; Dodo and Keep It Dark do take a little getting into, and frankly there's just no excuse, even after all these years, for Whodunnit? Which is just S*%t.

On the whole this sounds, as an album, like a gathering of all those kinds of songs which would otherwise have had to have been hunted down by fans, from the B-sides of Genesis singles, and which any other band - even Genesis themselves - might ordinarily have placed there.

It is a little flat, in comparison to others of their albums, too tentatively experimental (scrapes, squiggles, and noodles that perhaps go on for too long etc.) and as the quintessentially eighties style cover (and it's variants) shows, a pretty dated attempt to be eighties hip (bright colours, Pseudo-Picasso garishness), which is reflected in the music a little.

But still has enough moments of typically Genesis style highlights to make it worth another listen.

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As a reviewer on Amazon notes, the recordings on the CD sound different than we remember them. The prominent Hammond B3 with Leslie on the record of "Make My Life A Little Bit Brighter" has been mixed down so far it's like an incidental texture. Can't fault the sound on any of the tracks, though, they sound really nice. However, you come away with the feeling that yes, they did tamper unnecessarily with history.

Jim Mancel's "Let The Phone Ring" is worth the price of admission. It's a wonderful side of blue-eyed soul, arranged by and featuring the Fender Rhodes of "Dr. Music," Doug Riley, as does its B-side.

My overall impression is that Chester was a group with three main songwriters, who each used the band as session players on their own songs. There isn't much in the way of cohesive or identifiable "group sound."

With all the blank space in the package, it would have been nice if they'd given us the story of Chester as liner notes (like, who plays what?), and some more personnel and credits for the last seven tracks.

1 person found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Fantastic musicianship - esp Gay Gordons.

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If you've never seen the 1956 film "The Man Who Never Was" you would probably enjoy this. I think the way the characters that were played by Colin Firth (Ewen Montagu) and Matthew Macfadyen (Charles Cholmondeley) were terrible and the movie had this ridiculous love story going on in the background which was just so corny, Kelly Macdonald was like a square peg in a round hole and even Penelope Wilton was bad in this film and (for me anyway) that's a first. I honestly couldn't find one single redeeming quality in the film, it will be winging it's way to the nearest charity shop as it's not even worth a second viewing. Pity, I was really looking forward to this movie being brought bang up to date with all the newest techniques in filming available today. Instead what we got was (to use old parlance) a quota quickie where it appears this was just rushed off to get some money in or keep actors in employment. It says on the cover "Gripping & Incredibly Moving", the only thing I was gripping was the Remote Control to switch it off and the only way it moved me was to walk over and press the eject button. There was much to much emphasis placed on the fictional love story than there was on the historical aspect of the subject. Definitely one "NOT" to watch again.

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Starts with great intentions but gets lost as it works though CD2 then loses the theme completely with CD3 only just redeeming itself with Velvet Underground and Argent.

All 3 CDs contain great tracks but not all are worthy of the "Classic Rock" moniker.

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Sinbad of the Seven Seas is an entry in the Sinbad series of films which includes the enjoyable and much better film Golden Voyage of Sinbad. They are knockabout family friendly action adventure films.

Seven Seas was produced by an Italian company and directed by Enzo Castellari who is better known for his excellent violent crime films and spaghetti westerns. I know he is a talented director, but this film is mediocre at best.

Terrible acting from Lou Ferrigno who looks absolutely jacked, but doesn't bring much charisma to the role. Stefania Girolami Goodwin is good looking and wears skimpy tops as the princess, but it's an underwritten and boring role. John Steiner is however fantastic as Jaffar, the evil wizard. He really hams it up and makes the film much more fun to watch.

The set design is decent with some truly weird setpieces like hot air balloons flying machines like something out of a steampunk novel. The special effects are truly terrible even for 1989, they would even be considered bad for an ABC TV movie.

This film wasn't the success Cannon was hoping for at kick-starting the Sinbad franchise again and it is a low point of both Enzo's and Luigi Cozzi's (the screenwriter) otherwise largely excellent careers.

The film has gone onto obtain a campy cult status. The UK Blu Ray has an absolutely superb print, sadly only 2.0 sound. The zombie having its arm ripped off is intact which raised the film from a PG to a 12 rating. Other than for John Steiner's hilarious acting I can't really recommend it.

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I just watched this film last night and being born and brought up in North Belfast I can categorically state that this movie is totally and utterly inaccurate in it's depiction of not only the areas involved but historical inaccuracies are rife throughout the movie. Me thinks that Mr. Brannagh has spent too much time in England. One of the opening scenes had the army coming down the street with a Tank, there were never Tanks deployed in Belfast or anywhere else in Northern Ireland and the first armoured vehicles deployed by the army were the infamous "PIGS", it wasn't until a few years after that they deployed Saracens with machine guns mounted on the top but absolutely never ever were there Tanks on the streets of Belfast. There's also in the opening shots a newsagents at the end of the street which said General Store, Tobacconists and Off Licence. Alcohol sales in Northern Ireland were very much restricted to Pubs, Clubs & Off Licences, normal ordinary everyday Newsagents would never have been allowed to sell Alcohol unless it was under the counter. There was also a shop owned by the "Singh" family, there were absolutely no shops in Belfast owned and run by the Indian community, in fact, you could've probably counted the number of Indian families in Belfast on one hand. It wasn't until the mid 70's that Chinese Takeaways started to open. On one of the Bus Stops the word "Omnibus" appears, again this is another inaccuracy, the word in relation to Transport just didn't exist. For me the biggest travesty of this film is the use, or should I say, the overuse of Van Morrison on the soundtrack. Van Morrison was somebody who didn't figure on the music scene here at all, he was regarded by many a complete numpty and I never knew a single person who had any of his records. The music soundtrack to Belfast of the late 60's and early 70's was very much either Pop music or in my case Progressive Rock and Psychedelia. In our circle Van Morrison was the epitome of "Uncool", he was a grump Extraordinaire who never missed the opportunity to rubbish Belfast. Peter Sarstedt and the Archies were cooler than Van Morrison and in my crowd it was more about Led Zeppelin, The Moody Blues, Captain Beefheart, Traffic and The Beatles. If anybody is looking for any historical accuracy in this film or even thinks that it's anywhere near accurate they are sadly deluded. For me it gets the big Raspberry, the hype surrounding the film was better than the end product and Kenneth Brannagh really needs to research his material before committing anything to film. Total Rubbish

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Saw 'Tax The Heat' support 'Mott The Hoople' at the Symphony Hall, Birmingham UK on Sunday, 21st. April 2019..they (((((((ROCKEDDDDDDD))))))! So, just HAD to buy this CD during the interval..and I was not disappointed.

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One of my perennial favourites.

Henry is a high flying lawyer, living the life with a beautiful wife and their young daughter in the swanky part of town, until a chance encounter in a convenience store which is being held up, sees him get shot in the head.

In an instant his, and especially his family's life is turned upside down, as Henry is returned to an almost child like state, as his former self is all but destroyed... no longer able to perform for his firm, and pay the bills in the process, what with his family being placed now in the position of carers for him, and to assist in rehabilitation, in so far as they can.

As the story unfolds, truths about the relationships within the family are revealed, and it turns out the family's life, beneath the surface, was not quite the bed of roses they presented to the world, and that Henry himself, was not exactly a nice guy.

Basically, Henry has to learn to be the new person he has now become, at the expense of the person he once was, and his wife and daughter learn to adjust, what with the impact this has on them.

It's a fantastic character study, which allows Harrison Ford to get some of his best acting done alongside the ever solid Annette Bening.

Although a very sensitive portrayal of the frustrations that people in such situations as his, perhaps due to stroke, or returning injured from war and the like must surely recognise and sympathise with, it is not without the occasional comedic moments that arise from such situations, as well as being a very warm and poignant family film...

(Movie about family, as opposed to one to sit down with the kids and watch, if you get my drift)

...And a long with Witness, one of Harrison Ford's best films outside franchise movies.

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