The Departed Review

I finally got a chance to sit down and watch this movie. This movie is pretty well rounded. I'm not sure you could assemble a more all-star cast. Matt Damon playing a bad guy is interesting. And if you still have any doubts about Leonardo DiCaprio then I'm not sure which movie you watched. Leo has more than redeemed himself for Titanic. Mark Wahlberg was a nice touch, so was Martin Sheen and Alec Baldwin. Jack Nicholson performs amazingly, just as expected. Maybe too many stars...

The beginning starts out a bit shaky, definitely could use improvement. The first couple scenes are a bit hard to follow, but make sense once you know the characters. The plot is a bit long, Scorsese could have cut out a little bit and still pulled in under the 2hr mark. I noticed a couple interesting camera scenes, but overall nothing that was outstanding or impressive.

There are a TON of mistakes, noticed a boom mic, mistaken factual information, geography problems, tons and tons of revealing mistakes (papers in different spots, props in different places, gun shot wounds, etc) A lot of it is very noticeable and its detrimental to the value of the movie. Some of it only people from around Boston would notice, still i expect more from a pro like Scorsese.

A couple plot problems i had: Theres no way Sullivan would have gotten away with the events at the end of the movie. He wiped the gun, but the investigation would have found the various flaws in Sullivan's description of what happened. But it doesnt really affect the plot, as Wahlberg's character still would have been able to shoot Sullivan. It makes no sense why Frank would have the other insider in the police. Also the "everybody dies/just deserts" ending is a definite COP OUT....

I also didnt like the ton of profanity, and it takes a lot of "fuck"s to get me to say that. When a movie says fuck just to say fuck as many times as it can, gets to be just vulgar. Some instances dont need profanity. It normally doesnt bug me unless theres just a ton of it in the movie...

I'll admit, I was apprehensive about seeing this movie because of its sweep at the Academy Awards...but it was a great movie. Though I DEFINITELY dont believe this movie should have won 4 Oscars...a lot of great movies got snubbed at that Academy Awards....but then again the Oscars isnt the benchmark for great movies.

The more and more I analyze this movie the less and less I think of it, so We'll just leave it at that. (probably my longest review as of yet...)

Watchmen review

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. That being said, I'm not exactly familiar with the graphic novel (or any to be honest), and seeing the recent peak in films based on Graphic novels and comics makes me really wish I'd taken up the hobby years ago.

The movie was well done from a film perspective. I'm not an expert and have not read the novel so I'm not qualified to say whether or not its accurate. Not quite as stylistic as 300 (with the nifty, creative camera work), but equally as stylistic in regards to tones, shadow, and cinematography. Characters seemed well developed, though certain aspects seemed lacking, a fact I can only attribute to not reading the graphic novel. Tremendous soundtrack, nice call with the Philip Glass/Dr. Manhattan sequence. Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix are a plus. There seems to be a correlation between movies with great soundtracks, and great movies.

The only criticisms I have are that it doesn't carry that stylisitc edge that movies like 300, Sin City, and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen had. And the plot and visuals can be a bit overwhelming at times, I left the theater with a headache, unable to reflect on the movie because of how overwhelming it was.

This is one of the better movies that I have seen in the last 6 months or so, and thats saying alot. Go see it if you haven't--You'll like it regardless of whether your a comic fan.

Two Bands Too Long Forgotten

All good things must come to an end as they say. Sadly, this is a list of bands that have all been, well, disbanded. Despite this fact, they are still incredible and well worth a listen... If you can find them.

Cool For August -

Said to have taken notable influence from American Music Club (though I can't comment, as I've yet to listen to AMC), the band is well worth listening to for their vocal talent alone. Gordan Vaughn's sweeping vocal range (most notable in "Don't Want to Be Here") is an instrument in it's own right, and he does what few vocalists do: actually add the lyrics to song in such a way as to not interfere with the other instruments playing. It actually lends to the music, instead of just being a vocal track.

Unfortunately, this band is also on my list of favorite bands of all time, and it's sad to see that they aren't performing together anymore.


Schleprock -

Ninety's Punk purists, might have actually heard of Schleprock. They embody all the exciting, fast past, anti-authority-in-an-immature-manner fun of the early to mid 90's punk bands of the era; sccasionally switching it up for a cross genre thrill ride. Schleprock is a fun getaway from the more matured punk rock of today.

I don't honestly know if this band is around anymore, though the Internet shows no activity, or even trace of them. If I didn't physically own one of their CDs, I'd say they might have been a figment of my imagination.