Finally a sci-fi movie that isn’t all about special effects (although there are plenty subtle effects to be seen here). The premise of the movie reveals itself as a plot twist early on in the movie. Without spoiling anything, it is the sort of “what if” sci-fi premise that geeks love. On top of this, add some great characters and very good acting and you have a wonderfully compelling film.
This is a compilation CD of some of Monty Python’s most memorable skits. Many of the tracks are live performances, there are clips from The Holy Grail and several studio recordings. Good for a laugh even when you know every skit by heart.
They may have been a fake band and all, but they had Neil Diamond writing songs for them and that’s enough to make The Monkees awesome. “Randy Scouse Git” is your new favorite Monkees song you’ve never heard.
Ever since the release of the movie Drum Line, percussion ensemble music has been all the rage. 50% of Marassa Duo is Papador. Need I say more? YEEAAAAAH!
The band’s second Touch ‘n’ Go release is one of their best. For the most part, they have abandoned their surf rock roots for a decidedly more indy-rock meets new wave feel. The emphasis here is not so much on twang as it is on getting their guitars to make otherworldly sounds.
et another cool Italian movie soundtrack from Cinevox! The title track features Demis Roussos of Aphrodite’s Child(!) on vocals. His warbley stylings don’t quite fit here. Fortunately the rest of the album picks up after the cheesy opener. The instrumentation features the actual sounds of trains, a train-like drum machine beat and harmonicas mimicing the sound of train whistles. What’s not to like about that?
No that isn’t a black square you are looking at above. It’s a screenshot. A screenshot from Doom 3. Forget story and inventive game play, Doom 3 is all about mood lighting. And by “mood lighting” I mean darkness. Lots and lots of darkness… and shooting things.
The original Doom is a classic. I look at it as the pinnacle of the arcade-style shooter. When games were all about insane difficulty and scoring points. In some respects Doom 3 maintains much of the same feel of the original: lots of jump scares and monsters tucked away in places that make little sense in terms of real-world design. They exist only to jump out at you at the very moment you walk by or pick up that weapon upgrade across the room that is so tantalizingly lit. Your only goal is to shoot everything and then collect keys so you can get to the next area and shoot more things.
The graphics are pretty amazing and they seem to have aged quite well. It helps that everything is hidden in shadows. However, the maps all tend to look and play the same. The game does move quickly and offered me enough of a challenge to keep me plowing through to the end despite the lackluster story line. I do like the concept behind Doom quite a bit. The idea of a doorway to Hell occurs quite a few times in Lucio Fulci movies like The Beyond and The Gates of Hell. For that reason alone I was able to ignore the shortcomings of the story and just soak in the sinister atmosphere, and, in the end, that’s really what Doom 3 is all about.
Another hit-or-miss hodgepodge of redos and covers. Production quality is better than most of the band’s previous releases.
I think this record has been remastered since I got this CD. In any event, a business-as-usual release for MorA? I think around this time they dropped the ellipsis from their name too. My favorite track is The Prisoner inspired “Rovers.”
MorA? had a tendency to re-release songs over-and-over during their early years. This live album is yet another collection of songs I already own, except that they are live. Man… or Astroman? shows were always great (I think I saw them like six times), but the appeal was usually in the theatrics and, to a lesser extent, the goofy banter. You don’t get the visual theatrics here, but there a little sampling of Coco’s banter.
