The Descent follows the exploits of a group of female Scottish spelunkers in an uncharted cave system in the Appalachian Mountains. It takes them about 30 minutes of screen time to actually get to the cave. This time is spent fleshing out the characters and laying a bit of groundwork for events to come later in the film.
Once in the cave, there are a few minutes of exploring the beauty of the cave. Then we start hearing things and seeing things before a cave-in traps our heroines in the cave. Pretty soon the monsters are revealed and the “scary parts” commence.
There’s something about Thom Yorke’s voice. He has a unique ability to elicit sadness without coming off as a whiner (unlike, say, Coldplay). The lyrics of his new album, The Eraser, seem at first to be mostly nonsense, basically there to give Yorke an excuse to use his voice as an instrument… much like he does when fronting the band Radiohead. But look closer and there is meaning to be found.
Just give a listen to the title track, The Eraser. The combination of creepy piano chord progressions and a snazzy beat with Yorke’s haunting voice sends chills up my spine and sets the tone for the rest of the mostly melancholy album. Yet for some reason, it doesn’t make me depressed like most sad music… it just makes me feel.
Only in America are people this dumb… or malicious. I can’t decide which.
So I got the new Outkast album early, Idlewild and I’ve been listening to it on repeat for about a week now. It’s more of a companion album to the movie, than a pure soundtrack. Like all Outkast albums, it’s stylistically all over the place. But how is it?
praises & high points
Keeping in tune with the time period of the movie, some of the songs have a bit of a ragtime feel to them. To my ears, these are the standout songs of the album. I’ve had a long-standing love of swing, big band and ragtime music. So when I heard the guitars and horns on such danceable songs as PJ & Rooster and Idlewild Blue, I couldn’t help but get happy.
But, again, this isn’t a soundtrack to the film of the same name. Less than half of the 25 tracks follow the theme of the film. Most of the tracks are contemporary hip-hop and funny interludes.
Standout songs such as the Mighty “O”, which sounds like the Outkast anthem, and N2U, which I’ve been singing since I heard it a week ago, will get heads nodding and toes tapping. Make no mistake, Idlewild is the album you’ll hear bumping out of stereos for the next month or so… at least in ATL.
In addition to the danceable tracks, there are introspective songs such as The Train, which is one of the best cuts on the album. But the lines are blurred, these are songs that make you think AND make you tap your toe. With only one exception, mentioned later, every song on this album was genuinely entertaining, yet offered a little something for those who chose to look beneath the surface for meaning.
Ignore the stupid title. Ignore the internet hype. Snakes on a Plane (IMDb) is the most fun movie I have seen all summer.
plot & premise
Snakes on a Plane (SoaP) is the epitome of a fun summer movie. A simple premise fleshed out by quality actors and some cool effects. The problem with most summer movies is that they pretend to be more than they are. They want to be emotionally deep or thinking movies, but don’t invest the effort to do so and come off as lackluster. SoaP is not one of those movies. It’s a film that sets out only to be entertaining… and does what it promises.
The plot of SoaP is simple, so simple it’s actually kinda stupid. A dude witnesses a murder in Hawaii and is enlisted by the FBI to testify against a crime lord in LA. So they hop on a plane and fly to LA. The crime lord (who is obviously Cobra Commander from G.I.Joe) decides that the best way to rid himself of this witness is to have the plane infested with poisonous snakes. Hilarity ensues.
