Tag: Reviews

Extraneous Disbelief

My first movie review ever. Woohoo.

I will be reviewing Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle, so if you are planning on seeing it, but haven’t yet, do not read any further.

Is Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle all that it is cracked up to be? I would have to say depends. I enjoyed the movie, but I didn’t think it was as good as the first one. The stunts in this one were good, and it is evident that someone put a lot of thought behind them, but they were so over the top, that I had problems suspending disbelief (something I usually have no problems with).

Some of the chase scenes were good, and as with the first moive, there was lots of skin, good humour, and dancing to old 80’s tunes.

Character development was pretty sketchy this time. I knew that Bosley (Bill Murray) was now Bosley (Bernie Mac), but they never gave a good clear description of how or why the change occurred. I thought Bernie’s role was horrible. Bring back Murray!!!!! There were a few characters that were given too much screen time, were totally extraneous, and took away from the movie. Some of the subplots were difficult to follow, and distracted too much from what was happening. One key event in the movie was something that I never picked up on until after I left the theatre. I think it was supposed to be noticed by everyone, but it was far too subtle.

I was quite taken aback by how much Prodigy they used for background music. Makes me want to go buy that album again (my first copy was stolen a while back).

In all, I would say this movie was alright, and maybe worth seeing in the theatre if you have some money to spend. If you are penny pinching, save your money.

The final note was that I felt the volume in the theatre was a little too high. Picky I know, but when I spend that much money to see a movie, I want my money’s worth.

Electric Spoon Instruments

Next post today is my review of Artis.

In a word: WOW! If you have a chance to see him perform, I would recommend it. I arrived a little late to Centennial Square, and he had already started. He is a master of the spoons. He was jumping, dancing, crouching, switching between “instruments”, and in general just going off. The sounds from his instruments was complex, rythmic, and just plain beautiful. Truly a treat.

Besides playing the spoons, he also recited some poetry he had written, entertained with songs, played with string figures (including this incredbile series of figures that accompanied a story).

He also played the electric spoons. He said that ever since he started playing spoons, he wanted to play the electric spoons, so he invented how. Don’t ask me how it works. I saw that his spoons had one wrie coming from each, and these went into a yellow control box. He sat on a stool, and with some background effects already going, he began to play. He worked a couple of pedals while whe was strumming along, and got some pretty intense sounds going. Very amazing!

He also played along with a Satriani song.

In all I really enjoyed his performance. His poetry, and songs are very in your face, and dealt with current topics (one being the war in Iraq, but also violence in general). He is a very interesting and unique individual and is not afraid to speak his views. It would be a treat to sit and have coffee with him and just chat.

There aren’t many professional spoon players any more.

I apologize for my pictures. I tried my best with everything I know about photography, but the stage was a pain to shoot. I was sitting in sun, Artis was in shade, but behind him was a sunny backdrop. These were all I could salvage.

Modified Fan Tan Alley

Last night saw the return of Fan Tan Alley to Victoria. No, not that Fan Tan Alley, the band Fan Tan Alley. Matt, Craig, and new drummer (whose name eludes me) played an excellent set, in a venue that was on fire. Well, it felt like it was on fire since it was so hot.

They ripped the stage like only FTA can. They played a lot of new material I hadn’t heard before, and they even played a few acoustic songs. One song to highlight is their rendition of “Hit Me Baby One More Time”. Very funny, especialy some of their modified lyrics.

Nearing the end of the show, Mike came up to me and noted (since he saw their show the night before), that they had removed/slowed down a lot of their up tempo songs, and were now playing more rock ballads. Their songs were great, and definitely a treat to listen to, but the crowd definitely wanted to dance. Just as the crowd was starting to get into a fast song, it ended, and a slower one began. That is my one and only complaint.

It was great to see the guys, happy, healthy, and playing once again. I hope they make it. They deserve it.

Swollen Finger

I sit here this morning, typing, but feeling like I have been beat up. Last night I got smacked in the lip by someone’s head (resulting in a slightly swollen lip), cracked across the bridge of my nose (again by somone’s head), kicked in the leg repeatedly, then got nutted.

What happened you ask? I went and saw Finger Eleven at Legends last night. The crowd was a lot more aggressive than I had anticipated. I had positioned myself about three rows from the barrier, but I had to leave after just a couple songs. There was a fairly large groups of guys that were going nuts slamming into each other, and into the crowd, and it was starting to hurt my wrist. Going just outside the pit wasn’t much better, but at least I could enjoy myself with out too much worry.

How was the music? In a word: wicked. Finger Eleven always has so much energy. They played a bunch of stuff from their new album. Wow! I can’t wait until the 17th to pick that one up. It should be stellar. They also played a bunch of older stuff too. My two favorite songs of the night were Slow Chemical (from the WWF Forceable Entry soundtrack), and Good Times (from their upcoming release). Good Times was the last song from their main set, and I jumped and danced and sang my ass off for the whole song.

Their encore was good too. I loved their mix of old and new songs. Some of the new ones are pretty slow (at least by Finger Eleven standards), but very powerful sounding songs. I can’t wait to get this new disc.

One of my favorite points of the show was when Scott did something completely unintentional. He sings with his eyes closed (who wouldn’t with all those bright spotlights), and only looked into the crowd a couple times. Once though, he was leaning back with the mic stand, then set it upright (all with his eyes closed). He was very intense jamming to the music, with eyes closed. When he opened his eyes, he noticed the mic stand hadn’t settled upright, but in fact had fell forward was resting on the crowd. He grabbed it quickly, smiled and apologized to the people in front. Smiling Pretty funny at the time since he was so intense one moment, then apologetic the next.

Outside of the aggro crowd, and the excellent music, I must say that Legends is still a horrible place to see a band play. The ceiling is so low, that the stage is right on the ground. This means that you can’t see what the band is doing unless you are in the front row. If all you want to see is their heads, then Legends might be alright for you.

The last thing I wanted to mention was that I thought their set seemed pretty short. When they announced their last song was Good Times, I was surprised. I just thought that I was having such a good time, that time past more quickly. Nope. I got back to my truck at 12:45. I know they didn’t start until sometime around 11:15, and was completely finished by 12:30 (I waited while Steve retrieved his sweater from the coat check). Short but sweet I guess.

Almost forgot. I got nutted when security yanked a crowd surfer down. The surfers foot got me. Thankfully it was the last song of the encore. Yeesh.