Wednesday Sounds - Dethalbum II

Dethklok are back. With a album that doesn't pack quite the same punch that their debut album did. There are no 'Thunderhorse's here nor there are 'Go Forth and Die's or even something like 'Dethharmonic', so the epic level of this disc isn't even close to the one of the first one. Still, songs like 'Cyborg Slayers' and 'Comet Song' brings us the intense metal all the Dethklok fans craved for. Still, it's a shame the aren't more voice changes like there was in 'Hatredcopter' here. A little disapointing but still hugely brutal.

6/10

Monday Matinee - Sherlock Holmes

Guy Ritchie is back! Maybe it was Madonna, maybe it was a midlife crisis, but whatever it was is long gone. The good movies from him appear to be back. In this very different version of the character from the one we are used to, Robert Downey Jr. gives us another brilliant performance in the role of a not so political correct and often nasty detective. The misterious story is pretty entertaining through and through, with good action moments and a lot of laughs. And let us not forget about Mark Strong's great portraial of a villain. A great movie that has the capacity to bring us many sequels if that is Ritchie's plan.

9/10

Friday Comics - Fall of the Hulks: Gamma

Good grief. It's hard to defend the work of Jeph Loeb these days. It appears that all he can do now in a comic is bring shock and awe with the death of a main character and an unexpected and mostly unexplainable twist. This issue is a big proof of that. With another flashback narrated by Samson, where a center character to the Hulk series dies in a questionable way, followed by the funeral of the same character, who I'm not divulging to avoid spoilers. Finally we see another dead big character return to the book and a twist ending that looks completely out of character for Bruce Banner. Perhaps we will get explanations in the following months, but after Loeb's latest books I highly doubt it. But even if the story, although very entertaining, doesn't make much sense the art is top notch, as John Romita Jr is able to give us great scenes, giving the characters a great depth. A not great but fun read.

6/10

Monday Matinee - Avatar

Cameron is brilliant. Not many directors in Hollywood nowadays are able to assure producers that millions of dollars spent in their movies will assure an astonishing win at the box-office, he is one of them. Avatar, much like Terminator, Aliens and The Abyss is spectacular to watch, and this time with 3D screenings that spectacle is brought to a whole new level. This time the action takes place in the moon Pandora, where an ex-marine in a wheel-chair, Jake Sully, takes his dead twin's place in an experiment to create a diplomatic relation between humans and aliens in that planet. What ensues is a bit clichéd, something we had seen before in Dances with Wolves or Pocahontas, but this time in a more deeper level. Cameron is able to come up with a story that creates metaphors that successfully attacks racism, terrorism and ecological destruction, at the same time that it makes us remember the importance of nature. It will undoubtelly go down as one of the films of the decade.

10/10

Monday Matinee - Ninja Assassin

The Wachowski brothers always bring us spectacular entertainment. Sometimes the story isn't the best, but you can always count on amazing visuals or astounding action scenes. Ninja Assassin is another of those movies. The story is a little questionable, but the action is all-out. The movie of Raizo (Rain, who had starred in the Wachowki's adaptation of Speed Racer before), a boy raised by a Clan of ninjas that sees his part coming back for him while a couple of Europol agents try to uncover the Clan's secrets upon finding out about higly well-paid murders. The story is a bit clichéd, the dialogue isn't going to win any Oscars but the action is frenetic and exciting and reason enough to watch this movie. Not their best but surely one not to be missed.

7/10

Friday Comics - New Avengers Annual #3

There is no denying that New Avengers is the best Avengers comic right now. It's a little silly that we have three Avengers book about now, with Dark and Mighty and not counting Initiative. New Avengers balances perfectly the action and story, giving us a fun to read comic. Now, the story takes place right after the events of Dark Reign The List - Avengers, with Barton in Osborn's possession after being apreended. With Spider-Man and Bucky out of town, it's the ladies time to save the day, and so Spider-Woman, Ms. Marvel, Mocking Bird and even Jessica Jones team to rescue Clint. This issue gives us more of what we've seen in the past, the Dark Avengers missing the New ones by a second and battle never taking place, but the rescue scene compensates for that. The ending is not only great as it also brings back a face fans have been waiting for years to return to the Avengers books. Solid story, beautiful art and an epic ending, we just can't ask for more.

9/10

Thursday's Shows - Metalocalypse - Dethmas

Metalocalypse is a lot of fun. And this episode is no exception to the usual chaos of this series. In this episode we get Muderface trying his best to get the approval he needs for his Christmas Special - "The Christmas Spirit", a family friendly show where a spirit kills children. Things go wrong and the show ends up being supported by the Church, which doesn't please the rest of the band one bit. On the other hand the mothers of the Dethklok members have arrived and want to spend quality time with their sons, ending up giving them an helping hand with their special, in one particular case in a quite literal sense. Funny and nonsensical this is a show that doesn't dissapoint.

8/10

Monday Matinee - Thirst

Chan-wook Park's movies aren't for everyone. If some, such as me, consider Oldboy a work of art, others deeply hate it. Thirst falls on the same type of film. Entering the vampire mythos, Park brings us his personal twisted version of the bloodsucking drama. It is all about a Priest (Kang-ho), who volunteers for an expirement in virus vaccination, who ends up defeating the desease but getting sick with vampiristic needs. While drinking blood he remains healthy, stronger, more agile and faster, when he does not do so the desease returns, marking his body. Obviously he ends up corrupting a woman (Ok-vin) who doesn't show the same respect for human life come the blood need. I will not spoil the ending, but it is the kind of brilliance and emotion this director has used us to. Bringing the personal and social drama to a movie about the supernatural is something that we've seen many movies fail at (Twilight, I am looking at you), but here Park is able to really show us the difficulties the characters are going through with their new status in life, and the way that crossing their moral standards affects their behaving. South Korean film-making at its finest.

9/10

Friday Comics - Supergod #1

Warren Ellis is a genius. I have said it before and will probably say it again. I have yet to read something from the mind of that man that I did not like to read. Supergod does not disapoint. The story is narrated from a apocalyptic destruction setting in the future, where an old man makes a call telling how it all began. How humanity started creating their own divine creations. We are given a look at many a characters with superhuman powers conceived by scientific genius, based on religious concepts, like Krishna, the indian supergod. Ellis does a great, and usual, job at keeping the reader attached to the story the whole time without questioning the concept by giving all the necessary scientific tidbits that make this story sound real. Obviously, things go wrong and we get a look at the destruction and death these creations create themselves, ending the issue with a frightening look at America's very own nuclear superbeing. A great concept very well develop ed that could lead into an epic storyline.

9.5/10

Thursday's Shows - How I Met Your Mother S5 E9

After such a great episode as "The Playbook" it's hard to find another episode as funny as that, specially one that lacks Barney Stinson's awesomeness moments. But still, "Slapsgiving 2: Revenge of the Slap" is able to keep as humored through its 20 minutes. What it does lack in Barney it gives more than enough in hilarious Marsh moments with Lily and her father, specially when it comes to his games. Obviously the center of the episode is the 4th slap which, in the spirit of the thanksgiving spirit, Marshall decides to share with Robin and Ted. Unfortunately those two don't share the same spirit, and that slap takes its time to arrive, for Barney's torture. Finally, a little treat at the end with the Slap Bet game for children commercial gave me the couple of laughs that were missing. While tackling the emotional side of the story a little more than the funny side of it, this episode is still a good one, but unfortunatly it kinda fails to deliver a reason to make sense in the context of the show - the series of events that led to Ted meating his future wife.

7/10

Wednesday Sounds - This is War

I'm kind of disapointed. I'm not the biggest 30 Seconds to Mars fan, but A Beautiful Lie was a great album. Now comes This is War, and what I loved about ABL isn't here at all. The hard rock tracks, the fast paced lyrics from, for example, Battle of One, aren't here to be find. Maybe I still have to grow on this album, very much like I had to with Arctic Monkeys' Humbug. When an artist tries something new, and I don't mean something worse, it sometimes brings those that wanted a little more of the same down. But good for them, because an artist can only trully grow with a vast experience of sonorities. And that, that we get here. Kings and Queens is a great track for example, more slow paced than we are used to from 30STM. And something we get plenty through the whole album is chorus and more chorus during the songs, which is great at first, but rapidly become tiresome. A good attempt but not their best.

6/10

We Care A Lot - Iron Man 2

Since, I've been unable to catch on the reading, I bring Iron Man 2 news instead of Tuesday Titles.

The movie, to be released on May 7th 2010, has finally its own poster.



We finally get a glimpse at War Machine. And if you want more visuals to take here is the concept art



and an image from the footage shown at Comic-Con this year



But all of this begs the question: When do we get a proper trailer? Rumor has it that said trailer will arrive in the premiere of Sherlock Holmes, towards the end of December. Let's hope those rumors are true, because May is still a while away and I can't wait to see that armor in action.

Monday Matinee - Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs

Personally, I'm not a big fan of childish animated films. Prefering Zemeckis' Beowulf to Cars, for example, I like animation to serve a good story (Avatar can't comes fast enough). But every once in a while a delicious animated movie seriously entertains me. First it was Pixar's Up, now it was Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, a movie with a funny title that doesn't know how to take it seriously, and I say this in the good way. The story is about a small island town's inventor that can't get anything right, and whose inventions keep backfiring. This until the day he solves the food diversity issues of the town by creating a machine that makes food out of water. Of course it ends up backfiring into giant food storms, hilarity ensuing. The cast has great names such as Neil Patrick Harris, the legendary duo of Bruce Campbell and Mr. T, Anna Faris and Saturday Night Live's Bill Hader as the main character. The story, although, is able to move past the funny side and actually give a lesson on how the sons always do their best to please their parents, not always with the best results. An hilarious movie for all ages.

8/10

Thursday's Shows - V S1 E3

Invasion! A fan of the original or not, I think anyone can enjoy V. It's sci-fi at its finest. With a great cast and a good storyline, V provides 50 minutes of top-notch entertainment every week. In this latest episode we see the tv machinations of Chad Decker start to turn the polls to the V's side when many americans still hate them while Anna is able to convince even the greatest skeptic that their intentions are true. Erica and Father Jack keeping searching for more clues to gather a fighting front against the Vs and Ryan starts a plan to bring back a rebel V column back to fight the invaders. The drama gets personal when Tyler starts dating Lisa, which we find out is actually Anna's daughter, and Dale comes back to life only to remember which human almost killed him. Three episodes in and V is already an addicting show. Not to miss.

9/10

Wednesday Sounds - Them Crooked Vultures

What a good surprise. Dave Grohl and Josh Homme reunite since the Queens of the Stone Age time and get with Led Zeppelin's John Jones to bring us one of the best rock albums of the year. This album reminds a lot of Queens' Songs for the Deaf, although not as good in my opinion.Opening with the simple and slow paced No one loves me and neither do I the album rapidly moves to faster and catchier sonorities such as New Fang's or to the brilliant Scumbag Blues. And after some great stylized songs and the pausic Interlude with Ludes the album goes out with a bang with Gunman. One hell of a record.

8/10

Tuesday Titles - Born of Night

Listening to friends recommend reading advices may not be a bad idea after. Gave Born of Night, by Sherrilyn Kenyon, a try and can't say I regret it. With a good narrative and fast paced story, Born of Night kept me hooked for some good days. The futuristic story tells us about Nykyrian Quikiades an Ex-League Assassin, the private army of a bloodthirsty government, which is hunted by those he turned his back to. Our (anti-)hero ends up having to protect a woman that can't trust him for what he used to be, because of the family she lost to League Assassins. As the first chapter of a new universe, this book does a good at keeping the reader gripped as well as giving him enough motives to wait for the next installment eagerly.

7.5/10

Thursday's Shows - South Park S13 E13

It's great to have South Park back. The week is not the same without a decent 20 minutes dosage of slightly offensive humor. In this week's episode - Dances With Smurfs, which doesn't disapoint, we get another of Eric Cartman masterplans against Wendy as student president when the morning announcements student is killed when a cheated by his wife man confuses him by another man. After becoming the announcements student he goes on a personal attack on Wendy, blaming her for everything there is wrong in the school until he gets his announcements on television and ends up creating a whole story that allies Dances with Wolves and Smurfs, just to prove his point. Hilarious as always, South Park never fails to give us the social critique we deserve. By showing that just because someone owns a show or writes a book that doesn't mean that person has any idea of what they are speaking of, that they aren't exactly right or say the unquestionable truth. And there's also a stab at the "originality" of James Cameron's soon to be released Avatar. A good episode.

8.5/10

Wednesday Sounds - West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum

Finally, Kasabian are back! It's been too long. And after a slightly disapointing album like Empire, they return with a bang. West Ryder, although not as good as their first album, is a return to the greatness it had. Brilliant electronic sounds added to guitar riffs and drums in perfect unison. Songs like Fire, that start as a simple tune with deep lyrics and ascends progressively to a catchy complex and developed song, ballads like Ladies and Gentlemen or electronic madnesses like Vlad, the Impaler mark this album as a masterpiece of alternative rock. And the lyrics clearly showed a maturation in the band, which sound much more at ease with trying different rythms. Definitively one of the albums of the year.

9/10

Friday Comics - Captain America Reborn #4

Ed Brubaker is awesome. He brought Captain America back to the spotlight after some rought years. He made one of an arc about the state of America. He took the risk of killing Steve Rogers and he made Bucky the new Captain, a bold, XXI century soldier with a more straightforward attitude. Now he is bringing Steve back and doing it in style. With Sharon Carter having given herself to HAMMER, we find her arriving on Latveria where the Red Skull and Dr. Doom prepare the final arrangements for their big plan. We get more visions of Steve Rogers as he flashes through his life timestream, his past, catching one of his worst days - the "death" of Bucky. And while that happens Pym and Reed Richards finally conclude how Captain America can stop being unstuck in time and what can bring him back. But their plan doesn't go fast enough, and Steve Rogers returns only in body, only to be a vessel of the Red Skulls mind. With two issues to go, we know there's more twists to come. As usual the characterization is right on in every character, from Doom's condescence to Zola to Reed and Pym's geek debates. Bryan Hitch continues to create beautiful visuals for this story but he may be exagerating in the number of splash pages used, being some of them unnecessary, since they serve no purpose of shock, awe or surprise in most cases. Still, this is as best as comic storytelling gets.

9/10

Thursday's Shows - FlashForward S1E1

ABC is bringing some good surprises this year. First we get a remake of V, now we get another spectacular science-fiction show. The story starts with a worldwide incident in which all humanity blanks out for 137 seconds, during which everyone has a vision of their future, six months from now. With destruction and death resulting from that, a FBI team joins together to find out what has happened, and who or what was behind. As the flashforwards are used to provide clues and keep the story moving, we get a good look at the personal dramas of the cast, dealing what they saw during the incident or didn't saw, and why they didn't. The acting is pretty good, specially from John Cho, whom we are used to see in a more comical role but is able to give a great performance in this genre. Without dragging the plot througout the episode too much and giving a very good twist in the episode's end, this show is able to keep you hooked for the next episode. A great start.

9/10

Wednesday Sounds - The Life of the World to Come

I'm am not a religious guy, so when a friend of mine recommended me this album I wasn't sure I'd give it a go, since I knew The Mountain Goats had a great biblical source of material for their songs. Well, if you can't judge a book by its cover, you certainly cannot judge an album by its authors ideals. This is a marvelous album. Drawing themes and lessons from the Bible, The Mountain Goats bring us an album that isn't trying to force a belief into you, but using it to give us lessons in life and, really, a optimistic support for times of crisis in our lives. The songs show a great deal of originality, a clearly unique sound in each yet a defined characteristical rhythm to this band. A must, no matter what your beliefs are.

8.5/10

Tuesday's Titles - New Moon

I know, I know... But a friend of mine told me that for her to accept my criticism of Twilight I had to read it first so here we go. I don't think that anyone can disagree with me when I say this books saga is The teen girl fantasy. A book about a girl falling in love with a misterious and atractive boy written in the first person. Now, what does a guy think about it? Well, it's not exactly as bad as I thought. There's some good characterization and decent personal drama in there, a couple of action moments featuring vampires and werewolves and the ocasional humor. The story starts with Bella's birthday, which she isn't exactly happy about. After some vampiric birthday party mishap, Edward decides it's better for Bella to never see him again before something bad happens and that's followed by sadness, suicide attempts, a werewolf with raging hormones and a twist that shows us how much Edward loves Bella. The story is compelling enough to read through and the pages seem to fly by. Actually this feel like Stephenie Meyer is the Dan Brown of teenager chick lit. Short chapters are the secret ingredient here. For a guy, the first person read seems weird sometimes, specially when you have a description of how Edward kisses Bella. Although it doesn't justify the success of the books, this is a fairly decent read that should keep the reader entertained.

6/10

Monday Matinée - Anti-Christ

Lars Von Trier. The man that proclaims himself the best director in the whole world. I won't deny I'm a big fan of his Europa Trilogy but that claim is a little too much in my personal opinion. Anti-Christ is another statement. A movie that draws a very, very thin line between shocking and offensive and something artistically beautiful. The story starts with one of the best introductions to a movie I have seen all year. A brilliant black-and-white scene to the sound of an aria from Handel's Rinaldo that shows the greatest tragedy of a couple, when their infant son falls out of a window while the two make love. And sex is one of the main points of the movie. Following that event we see the male protagonist, Willem Dafoe's unnamed character, decide to take her sorrowful wife, also unnamed and played by Charlotte Gainsbourg, to a cabin in the woods of Eden. What follows that is series of horror moments that show chaos rulling over nature in the most shocking ways possible, in animals and plants alike. But its in the wife that evil really shows up, leading to many scenes of pure violence and sexual mutilation, that end with an epilogue that attempts to pass us the idea that the wife death is the necessary unfortunate event that can end and evil that started with Eve's original sin. I say attempts because, apart from the brilliant acting and the beautiful visuals, the story isn't exactly clear in every moment. It may as well be the idea of the director, but we don't get a complete picture of the metaphor Lars is trying to create with this movie. With people fainting in Cannes when this one was showed you know this is isn't for weak hearts. The violence is shocking but not gratuitous in my opinion, it does serve the story. Possibly one of the love it or hate it movies of year, it's certainly on experience not to miss because of the way it makes one feel.

7.5/10

Thursday's Shows - Modern Family (Ep. 6)

This show is, in my opinion, the best televisive surprise of this year. With a great cast, a good concept and loads of humor it gets impossible not to like it. And this show is so aware of its humor that you get no laughter tracks everytime a something funny occurs, it makes this series natural and not pressurably enjoyed. In this episode - "Run For Your Life", we get laughing with tears funny moments from Claire and Phil teaching Haley to drive and later in a race for glory, another high-pitched baby crisis with Cameron and Mitchell and a cultural shock between Jay and Manny. As usual this episode delivers not only great humor, but also great family moments, that make this a show that can be watched by the whole family not only for the familiar context of the show but also for the heart-warming moments, like this episode's "bumpy circumstances", that remind us what it means to be in a family and the importance of it. This is entertainment and the next episode can't come fast enough.

10/10

Wednesday Sounds - The Resistance

I love Muse. I've been a fan of them for a long time. And one of the reasons I like this band so much is because of their capacity to surprise me with new rhythms and new experimental sounds every album. The Resistance is Muse's greatest example of that. After Black Holes and Revelations, Muse try a new sonority that makes this album an original masterpiece. With simple yet detailful musics like United States Of Eurasia, songs with prologue and brilliant crescendos with great vocals, Muse give us an album that constantly reminds me of Queen's A Night At the Opera, for its catchy lyrics and masterfully composed tunes. And while we still get songs like Uprising and MK Ultra that are classic Muse all the way, we have also Undisclosed Desires, a small step into electronic that might be a prelude for things to come. Finally we are met with Exogenesis, a genius three-parter composition that reminds us that music these days doesn't always have to sound the same and that originality is not dead. It's a final stroke of genius that makes of this album one of the best of this year, and while the die-hard fanbase might argue that they wanted more of the same, nobody can deny Muse didn't put out one hell of an album.


9/10

Tuesday's Titles - The Lost Symbol

Oh, Dan Brown, it's so hard to quit your books. You realize how he does get you addicted to the story, you get that the chapters are way too small and you've heard a similar story before already, but damn it, you just can't stop reading it. Once again, Dan offers a story that brings up the Freemasonry and usual conspiracy theory it always brings, which, quite frankly, is starting to get a little repetitive. With bits of science fiction and classic references to actual people and institutions this is a book that is able to get you gripped easily. What I've found most interesting in the it was the fact that it takes the city of Washington as a character, constantly evolving and developing it with all its symbols and masonic history to advance the story to its culmination. While it doesn't take its place as my favorite Dan Brown book, which is Deception Point, its definitely one of Brown's best efforts.

7/10

Monday Matinée - Saw VI

Well, I'll be damned. After two weak movies, the saw franchise comes back with a bang this year. And for that successful are a wide range of reasons. The first one would be the return (kinda) of the original cast, with Tobin Bell and Shawnee Smith in their respective roles as Jigsaw and Amanda, who bring back the early franchise mythos and make this movie relevant to the continuity of the franchise. Secondly there's the good story. Detective Hoffman keeps the Jigsaw tradition going although are a few twists in his path, while we get a few good glimpses of the past between Hoffman and John. Finally there's the critic implied in the movie, which for me is what defines this one as one of the best Saw movies. While we still get the good ol' gratuitous bloody gore there is a good dose of the morality on the subject of health insurance and how much a life's worth. But then again this is Saw, right? Insured or not, everybody dies.

8/10