Entertainment: Music, Movies

seeing as how i was only here for about 2.5 days and i'm leaving again, i don't have much... and steve is my guest writer for my movie review... since i didn't see that movie... (thanks, baby...)

the only thing i've been watching is the first DVD of the first season of Chappelle's Show. damn. he is one funny mother fucker.

i can't wait until my schedule goes back to normal... jeezus... i'm being worn down... worn out... ugh.

::MUSIC::

Beck: Guero. album drops 3/29. BUY IT. this is one of the BEST albums i've heard this year. i don't think i'm being biased, even though i love Beck. it's more odelay than sea change. sea change was SO mellow... not to say that i didn't love it. that was one of my albums of the year when it came out... but, i must say, beck fucking blew my tiny little mind away with this shit. there's only one song that i'm not fond of... reminds me too much of the beach boys... and don't crucify me or anything, but i really don't care for the beach boys. they're so... BORING. god. anyway, beck once again amazes as he crosses genres and keeps his shit fresh and inventive.

DJ Dara: The Antidote. this album came out last year. good drum and bass, as always. dara never disappoints. not my favorite album by him, but still very, very good...

::MOVIE::
Steamboy. (i guess this is how a movie review SHOULD be. i suck.)
So I got invited to a press screening of Steamboy on the Sony lot last night, of course I was all over it. On the upside, I had a blast roaming the Sony studios and relaxing in one of their posh executive screening rooms, about 50 oversized plush reclining seats total with awesome sound. They have a beautiful campus there, very relaxing and some sweet architecture for their office buildings too. Also, they gave us the choice of watching the film in the standard dubbed and shortened version for primary US release, or the original subtitled version (about 15 minutes longer). Yes! Of course we picked the subs, what anime fan wouldn't?

On the downside, the movie blows. You know how the ending to Akira just drags on and on but at least maybe kinda has a point? Now imagine a "final" battle that starts about halfway into the flick and results in no real emotional payoff. That's right, an hour of things blowing up with no real plot. Also imagine an incredibly annoying and cliched girl supporting character they drop into the film practically unexplained, then they try to shoehorn her in as an uncomfortable love interest/foil for the main boy...yeah, Lucas handles romance better than this. Even the look of the film wasn't all that great, doesn't even come close to Innocence or Howl's Moving Castle from a technical standpoint although the backgrounds are pretty well done.

*Spoiler alert* The story follows a boy in 19th-century England who is trying to follow in the footsteps of his famous inventor father and grandfather. They've created impressive new machinery using steam power, so one cool aspect of the flick is kind of similar to LXG, showing the common man's reaction to these fantastic new super-powered creations roaming the countryside. The dad and grandpa create a super steam power cell about the size of a basketball (very poorly explained origin), and the principal fight is grandpa and a shadow organization trying to keep control of the ball away from dad and his opposing shadow corporation. The boy is stuck in the middle, doesn't know who to trust, and that's about the end of the plot and character development. Eventually, dad unleashes a gigantic steam tower in an attempt to sell its weapons to some assembled world leaders, and grandpa's organization tries to stop them. That takes you up to about the hour mark, and from there on it's just fighting, fighting, and more fighting. Yawn. *End spoiler*

This is another prime example of why some creators shouldn't be given carte blanche... this movie could have succeeded if anybody had the stones to demand a coherent, tight plot and streamlined final battle, but as it stands it's just a highly flawed monument to Otomo's ego. Hopefully we won't have to wait another 17 years for him to try again, Akira was way too long ago.