|
Every month, Cosmik Debris brings you many CD and record reviews, but the writers manage to find a little time for other pursuits, like reading, going to movies and watching videos. That's where Everything Else In Review comes in.
MOVIE: Goldmember
Starring Mike Meyers, Michael Caine, Byonce Knowles,
Robert Wagner, Mindy Sterling, and Seth Green
Directed By Jay Roach
Written By Mike Myers and Michael McCullers
New Line Cinema
Reviewed by Rusty Pipes
It's usually a bad sign when Hollywood opens the promotional flood gates; it smacks of a movie that's not very good and they are trying to make a quick killing the first weekend before the word gets out. They opened the gates very wide indeed for the third Austin Powers movie. The good news is that Goldmember is funnier than I expected, but unfortunately after all the hype I wasn't expecting much.
The plot is a horrid mish-mosh of flashbacks, father figures, floor shows and flatulence. But who cares about plot? Dr. Evil's latest plot to destroy the world is supposed to be ridiculous. Pulling down an asteroid for profit using a beam that pops out of the ass of a giant sub shaped like himself, yeah, that qualifies as ridiculous in the extreme. At least it's an excuse to go back in time to find a co-villain, Goldmember, to work with. Goldmember is the fourth role for Myers this time around, a Dutch disco freak who dabbles in metallurgy, eats flakes of his own skin, and likes to paint penises gold. I guess just to be ornery he also kidnaps Austin's father. Of course Powers has to pursue him into the past, so this movie we get a 70's motif instead of the 60's. The disco scene is made complete when he meets up with Foxy Cleopatra, played by Byonce Knowles of Destiny's Child. Knowles plays along gamely with this chaos and her Afro Attitude provides many of the better moments in the film.
The movie is very aware of its own medium and that helps set up some of the jokes, like when Myers leaps off the screen during a Quincy Jones soundtrack session, or the hilarious cameos of the opening sequence. No, I won't ruin it by naming names, but the running start it gives the movie soon gets bogged down in variations on the same old jokes. Frau Farbissina still yells out orders at the top of her lungs; Dr. Evil still uses air-quote marks (around "tractor beam" instead of "laser" this time, ho-hum) and Austin himself is still saying yeah-baby-this and shag-a-that everywhere. And of course there's liberal helpings of bathroom humor topped off by excruciatingly bad puns. Ones that even Rocky and Bullwinkle would be ashamed to use. You might say the plot gets Myer-ed in them.
But Byonce, sorry, beyond all that, I think what's weakest about the whole production is its name. Last movie, Felicity Shagwell was a Spy Worth Shagging but here the Goldmember character (obviously it's a play on the third Bond movie's name) really doesn't add anything; he's just plain forgettable.
Maybe I complain too much. It's hard to dislike a movie that has genuinely funny moments like when Austin and his dad (Michael Caine) have a conversation in lower English that requires subtitles. I did laugh at the slapstick, I did squirm at the mole, I did enjoy seeing a number of major stars in Powers drag. They obviously had a great time and I have to admit so did I, but I doubt if I will go out of my way to see it again. There's too much air in this series' balloon; puffing up a fourth one will probably explode in Myers's face.
(C) 2002 - Rusty Pipes
DVD: The Royal Tenenbaums
Writer/Director: Wes Anderson
Starring: Gene Hackman, Angelica Huston, Danny Glover
Gweneth Paltrow, Luke Wilson, Owen Wilson, Ben Stiller
Buena Vista Home Video - 109 minutes; 2 discs
Reviewed by Erick Mertz
"The Royal Tenenbaums" is a simple fairy-tale about a patriarch who attempts to put his family of broken prodigies back together after nearly twenty years apart. Royal (Gene Hackman) is a boorish, self-centered disbarred litigator who is thoroughly clueless about fatherhood, let alone basic human decency. Immediately, his children are suspicious of his motives and understandably so, considered how he claims to be terminally ill and his return coincides with his estranged wife's (Angelica Huston) consideration of re-marriage to her manager Henry Sherman (Danny Glover). Packed with chases, playful antics and misadventures along the way, Royal learns that the road to family happiness is at best, a rocky one.
Writer/Director Wes Anderson has a knack for bringing out the best in his cast with challenging, career defining roles. Beginning with Bill Murray's performance in "Rushmore" as morose tycoon Herman Blume, this trend certainly carries over into "The Royal Tenenbaums" and on much a broader scale. Each character in the ensemble created by Anderson is simultaneously blessed with prodigious talent and crippled by frailty. Gweneth Paltrow is delightful in her depiction of the sullen playwright and adopted daughter Margot. The same is true of Luke Wilson, whose portrayal of the failed tennis player and painted Richie is honest and complex. Anderson regular Owen Wilson's rendition of drug addled writer Eli Cash is as complex a character as he has undertaken. Ben Stiller's dead pan delivery is both tragic and hilarious as uptight real estate mogul Chaz Tenenbaum. Whether these terrific performances should be attributed to the roles Anderson writes or his sense of direction remains to be seen, but no where else has anyone of these performers been better.
Visually "The Royal Tenenbaums" transcends ordinary filmmaking with its stunning stylistic elements and careful design. Every detail is consciously rich and sumptuous. In the course of just three films ("Bottlerocket" and "Rushmore") Anderson has already developed a distinct style, an achievement not to be underrated. In a time when mainstream movies are shamelessly ordinary, the creative forces behind "The Royal Tenenbaums" seem more interested in creating works of art.
Anderson uses visual devices to cue his audience better than any director working in film today does. When characters undergo significant personal change, their manner of dress follows or their appearance is altered physically. Richie's shave and haircut scene, which precedes his botched suicide attempt, is one of the more rewarding sequences in recent memory. It flickers and jumps with tension and uncertainty, mirroring the internal workings of the character. This complex and challenging visual device is Anderson's forte and one that almost every other director would shy away from. Anderson recognizes the pivotal moments in the lives of his characters for the demanding slices of life that they are, and uses them as the dramatic crux of his films.
Wes Anderson has created a true rarity in "The Royal Tenenbaums:" a modern day fable with a look befitting a child's bedtime story and the humorous life lessons of the burlesque morality tale.
THE EXTRAS
The DVD of "The Royal Tenenbaums" is as thoroughly assembled as any on the market with an extra disc packed full of stills, companion artwork and trailers, and Independent Film Channel featurette With the Filmmaker: Portraits by Albert Maysles featuring Wes Anderson and a segment of the Peter Bradley talk show. It is a boon to Anderson fans and casual observers that the Criterion Collection has been released so soon, the format of which allows viewers an in-depth look into every aspect of "The Royal Tenenbaums." Not only does Anderson have ample forum to discuss his creation but each of the principal actors is allowed a few minutes to talk about the characters they inhabit and not in the name of promotion, but rather as an exercise in character study.
The surprise star of the extra features is Eric Anderson, the director's brother, whose artwork can be found everywhere, from the various menu screens to a comprehensive gallery to collectible fold out insert. All of the creations by the Tenenbaum children - from Margot's plays to Richie's portraits - are available in full screen, as are the murals that cover Richie's walls in the film. Their individual rooms are laid out in cartoon style, with personal effects noted, and key scenes are outlined. While this might sound excessive, all of the detail serves to provide a deeper understanding of the characters in "The Royal Tenenbaums." Anderson has gone to great lengths to create a living, breathing life for his characters right down to their eccentricities, and an open window into his creative process. The breadth of this DVD proves he will stop at nothing to achieve that.
(C) 2002 - Erick Mertz
SHOW: Maktub
Venue: The Showbox, Seattle, WA
Date: July 19, 2002
Reviewed by Eric Steiner
Seattle's Maktub (pronounced mock'-tube, Arabic for 'it is written') is one of my favorite new live bands. They play a unique brand of music that's all over the jukebox. This year, Maktub will celebrate their eighth anniversary as a band, and it's about time that they've hit the big time. From a powerful version of Led Zepplin's "No Quarter" to original funk that jets up and down my spine with a Kevin Goldman big funky bass line, Maktub's live show at Seattle's Showbox showed me that I really should venture out of my Cosmik Blues box more often.
Maktub features Reggie Watts on lead vocals and synthesizer, a rock-steady rhythm section of Kevin Goldman on bass and Davis Martin on drums, Daniel Spils on Hammond B3, and Thaddeus Turner on guitar. Together, these musicians quickly helped fill the Showbox dancefloor to capacity.
Tonight's set featured most of their newest CD, Khronos, Maktub's follow-up to 1999's Subtle Ways. This time out, Daniel opened with a very haunting keyboard to Davis' thundering drums on "No Quarter," and Reggie's Sly Stone-style 'fro rocked to and fro' to one of Led Zep's hardest rocking songs from their 1973 release, Houses of the Holy. His vocals recall the great soul singer tradition of Sam and Dave, but they also can soar with the likes of Robert Plant, Al Green, and one of my favorite funksters, Sly Stone. Just like his hair.
Maktub's set featured some of Khronos' best cuts, including "Just Like Murder," and one of my favorites from their Subtle Ways debut, "You Can't Hide."
The show was an aural assault that ranged from psychedelic soul, funk and rock and back, and like the other Showbox scenesters, I was very pleased with the variety, all the way from Led Zepplin to contemporary funk, of Maktub's music.
Since their Showbox show, Maktub has been recording in Los Angeles and Seattle studios with Los Angeles-based producer Printz Board (trumpeter and keyboard player in Nikka Costa's band, and one of the Black Eyed Peas).
I ambushed Printz shortly after he energized the band with an exciting solo on the trumpet with some impromptu arranging onstage. His enthusiasm for Maktub was infectious.
"I'm trying to help Maktub get to the next level with their music," he told me amongst many other admirers in a very crowded and sweaty Showbox dancefloor. "They've really got it, and when I first heard Reggie sing, I knew that this band had something special."
Right on, Printz.
Seattle Weekly readers have voted Maktub "Best Local Band 2002," and they've got some worldwide buzz thanks to Starbucks and National Public Radio. Coffee houses around the globe will feature many Maktub songs piped in along with the caffeine, and KUOW-FM's Marcie Sillman's got an NPR interview in the can that will go live, according to the Maktub website.
While my monthly Cosmik Blues column, Cosmik Blues, is a source of great pride, Maktub showed me that I really should expand my musical horizons now and then. Maktub's show at the Showbox showed me that there was a new Seattle sound, and it's a mix of soul, funk, and rock, all rolled into one.
(C) 2002 - Eric Steiner
BOOK: Napalm and Silly Putty
By George Carlin
Published by Hyperion Books
Reviewed by Rusty Pipes
For more than three decades now George Carlin's cultivated a view of American Life that is acidic, crude, sick, harsh, irreverent, twisted, morbid, insulting, gross, presumptuous, foul-mouthed and perverted. And yet he's a sentimental soft-touch too. He's that way because we are that way. In short he's an indispensable mirror on ourselves and Napalm and Silly Putty is a great treasury of his thoughts.
Reading this book is like doing spring cleaning on your head. Obviously coming from the same mold as Carlin's first book, Brain Droppings, Napalm's full of witty remarks that work a bit like Zen koans to shake up your mind and make you aware of those hidden, unquestioned assumptions by which you live your life. Wait, what am I saying!? All that sounds pretentiously Yuppie after reading this book! George would just say the book is a mental laxative to poop the bullshit out of your brain.
I've probably heard at least 90% of Carlin's monologues over the years and NASP recycles quite a few of his best pieces. It's all arranged thematically so you get all the stuff on dogs in one place and cats in another, plus items on sex, death, ignorance, farts and so on. Tucked in here and there are delightful new bits I'd not seen before like "Interview With Jesus" and a poem called "Advertising Lullabye." Some pieces date as far back as his Occupation Foole album in the 70's but there is also more recent material on airplanes and airport security, some of which seems a little out-of-place in our Brave Post-Osama World.
Between the longer pieces there's a lot of "Short Takes" material sandwiched in that's most all new, usually taking the form of observations like, "Why do people say 'raw sewage'? Do some people actually cook that stuff?" or "When he got loaded, the human cannonball knew there were not many men of his caliber." The collections of one-liners are conveniently arranged on gray pages so you can easily find your Carlin Koan for the day. To me it was the best part of the book, making me wonder what would happen if I printed them up on little slips of paper and baked them into fortune cookies and snuck them into a Chinese restaurant. I guess that's what happens when you take a stiff dose of George.
It's good Carlin can now sit beside our other great American authors. No, he's not a Mark Twain or Terry Southern, but he's his own man and his uniquely delightful views deserve a spot on your bookshelf if they aren't already among your album collection.
(C) 2002 - Rusty Pipes
DVD: Elvis - The Great Performances
3-Disc box set, Rhino Home Video
Reviewed by DJ Johnson
Though this is a 3-DVD box set, I'm only reviewing Volume 1, Center Stage and can only vouch for the quality and entertainment value of that particular disc. That being said... bloody marvelous! Fifteen performances spread out from his first television appearance to the last song he performed, just six weeks prior to his death, and since we've seen most of these before and noted the murky sound I think it's safe to say some cleanup has been done here, because it looks and sounds pretty spiff.
A few of the selections seem odd, especially the more than obviously lip-synched film version of "Teddy Bear," but by and large the selections are satisfactory. The options included on the DVD allow you to cherry pick songs, but if you do that you miss out on a narrative that is quite entertaining, along with some great between-song footage. Another feature, one which I turned off when it grew old after a mere seven minutes, is the "Trivia Track," which puts bits of information at the bottom of the screen. Complaint number 1: Many of the videos are in black and white, which creates its own ambiance and feeling of time, and the trivia is displayed in a yellowish-orange that derails that effect completely. Complaint number 2: Only some of the trivia facts are useful. It gets to be very much like watching an episode of Pop Up Video when we see Elvis on the phone being interviewed and the trivia track is telling us who invented the phone and when. Mmm, that's relevant here. My "Subtitles Off" button quickly did away with the trivia track and I spent a happy 53 minutes with the King.
Well, a mostly happy 53 minutes. There's something disconcerting about watching his final song, seeing him struggle with it and sweat through it, and then watch him be hustled straight off the stage, into a limo to be driven off into oblivion. Apparently the people at Rhino felt it, too, and didn't want to leave it with that image, and so the clock is suddenly rolled back 9 years to Elvis' comeback concert and a healthy young man in black leather, totally in command of the stage and the crowd as he sang "All Shook Up."
There it ends, for those of us who only have volume one (poor schmucks!), but volume two is said to cover his private life through home movies and interviews with his closest friends, while volume three covers the one year in which he went from Joe Nobody to the hottest property in show biz. Narrated by U2's Bono, based on... um... I dunno why, but it is. Me, I'm hyped to see volume two, nervously curious to see volume three and very pleased to own volume one.
(C) 2002 - DJ Johnson
SHOW: The Indigo Girls w/K's Choice
Venue: Pier 62/63, Seattle, WA
Date: July 9, 2002
Reviewed by Shaun Dale
It was a perfect summer night at a perfect summer venue, outdoors on the Seattle waterfront, as the faithful assembled for the annual visit of the Indigo Girls to the Summer Nights At The Pier concert series. The first appearance of an Indigo Girl came when Emily Saliers offered a personal introduction and endorsement of the opening band, Belgium's K's Choice. The endorsement was confirmed during the opener's set when Saliers and Amy Ray took the stage to sing along with the band. Led by the brother and sister duo, Sarah and Gert Bettens, K's Choice captured the attention support of the crowd with a spirited set.
When Saliers and Ray took the stage, they immediately owned the hearts of the crowd. While they did include material from their latest release, Become You, they devoted most of the evening to exploring their extensive catalog of fan favorites, provoking numerous sing alongs. Sarah Bettens was called onstage to join them in "Closer To Fine" and her brother Gert joined them for the encore, but it was Amy and Emily the crowd came to see, and Amy and Emily, obviously appreciative of the adoring throng before them, gave that crowd all they hoped for.
(C) 2002 - Shaun Dale
MULTIMEDIA: Heathen Enhanced CD
Artist: David Bowie
Label: (ISO/Columbia)
Reviewed by Rusty Pipes
For want of a better name we'll nickname this review "Adventures in Heathen-land." Cosmik ran a review last month that covered the wonderful music on Bowie's Heathen release but it didn't cover the fact that the CD has several multimedia features if you plug it into a computer.
At first I put it into my Toshiba laptop which has a DVD drive and runs Windows XP. I have Windows Media Player set as the default application for audio CD's. When I first put in the disk, there was a CD Extra splash screen that offered to "play CD" or to "get 'ConnecteD' Go!" Nothing happened when I hit play so I hit the other and downloaded a Shockwave update from CD Extra. Thereupon I was taken to a website where one could view the "Bonus Pictures" which turned out to be the word "Heathen" in various typefaces and locations over Bowie's gray tone cover picture. Clicking on the "More Photos" button invited you to become a Bowienet member. You get a thirty day free trial with the CD. I signed up but the site was a whole other world that I'll not go into for now. From the ConnecteD main page you could also bring up the lyrics to the songs, play two "B sides," "Safe" and "London,"which was pretty cool, a nice extra. However I still couldn't play the CD. I had to manually launch Media Player, whereupon it played quite nicely.
Curious as to what the limitations we, I also took the CD to an older HP with Windows 98 that I still have. The CD Extra start screen came up as before but this time the "play CD" button worked, and launched the older default CD player still on that machine. After loading the Shockwave update the ConnecteD software seemed to behave too and the CD still played properly from its button. Curious.
I also had access to an iMac, and knowing of some of the recent troubles with Celine Dion's latest, I gingerly put it in the system. It came up fine, but the strange thing was that it produced two icons onscreen instead of one. One operated the audio features and the other got you ConnecteD again.
In the interest of scientific completeness I also played the CD on the oldest deck I have, a 14 year old TEAC that was built long before any of the fancy oversampling circuitry that's in modern equipment. It also played the Heathen CD without complaint.
All that and my copy came with a bonus CD of remixes. Frankly the Moby remix of "Sunday" didn't appeal to me as much as the Tony Visconti mix and the new "Panic In Detroit" lost all of Mick Ronson's choppy aggressiveness which is what made the original so memorable.
Actually this is how audio CD's should be done. In a world full of MP3 copies, you won't get all of Heathen's extras burning your own. Bowie offers a lot and on the whole I'm very happy with Heathen. Time with tell what place it occupies in Bowie's legacy.
(C) 2002 - Rusty Pipes
DVD: Elvis - The Definitive Collection 25th Anniversary Set
8 DVD box set, Passport Video
Reviewed by DJ Johnson
As was the case with the Rhino 3-DVD Elvis box, we're limited to one disc of a set here. One disc of this 8-DVD set from Passport Video, so I'm going to keep this short and to the point.
Disc 2: The Hollywood Years is THE most entertaining and informative videos I've seen on this subject. When I read a book about a person or historical event, I prefer an oral history because you're not getting one person's slant. By the end of those books you have a consensus and a pretty good idea of who the person was or what really happened. This DVD is an oral history of Elvis' Hollywood experience and an account of his what he was like as a person at that time. Countless actors, actresses, directors, crewmen, members of the legendary Memphis Mafia (Elvis' tight-knit entourage who remained loyal to the end) and musicians recall what it was like to work with him, and all but one remember it as some of the best times of their lives. (I won't spoil it by telling you who the one dissenter is.) In obviously candid interviews, these people paint a picture of a young man who treated women with respect, demanded others do the same, didn't tolerate directors mistreating his fellow actors, loved to give people breaks and was decent to the core. We also learn to dislike Elvis' manager, Col. Tom Parker enough to want to go a couple rounds with him with a crowbar, but I don't want to spoil all that, either. The full lineup for the box looks like this:
Disc 1: The Memphis Years/The Television Years
Disc 2: The Hollywood Years I/The Hollywood Years II
Disc 3: The Army Years/The Memphis Mafia
Disc 4: Elvis and Priscilla/Elvis and the Colonel
Disc 5: The Many Loves of Elvis/The Intimate Loves of Elvis
Disc 6: The Comeback/The Vegas Years
Disc 7: A Man and His Music/The Spiritual Soul of Elvis
Disc 8: Elvis Is Gone/All the King's Disciples: The FansUnless this disc is the cream and the rest is all downhill, this is probably one hell of a collection. Tell you this much... if you always liked Elvis, this will make you feel good about your ability to judge character. (Please note that this volume covers the movie years only and doesn't get into the heavy duty druggin' an' craziness years. Thank you.)
(C) 2002 - DJ Johnson
MOVIE: Signs
Starring: Mel Gibson, Joachim Phoenix
Written and Directed By: M. Night Shyamalan
Blinding Edge Films
Reviewed by Rusty Pipes
Signs is an unlikely cross between Field Of Dreams and Independence Day, in that most of the action takes place on a lonely Pennsylvania farm, which becomes a drop zone for aliens bent on taking us over. Mel Gibson stars as Graham Hess, a former minister who recently lost his wife and, consequently, his faith, who is now living on the farm with his two kids (Rory Culkin and Abby Breslin) and his brother Merrill (Joachim Phoenix). Director M. Night Shyamalan has them all in fine form, exuding fear mostly, but spicing it with some fine comedic touches that keep the story human.
Oh I forgot, Shyamalan has also added to this film's recipe a little Alfred Hitchcock, Rod Serling and yes, Ed Wood too. The tightly controlled suspense is all Hitchcock, even the small role Night himself plays in the film is a kind of Hitchcockian ploy (Alfred always appeared somewhere in each of his films, but usually as a bystander). The pat solution to the alien problem is all Rod Serling, that and the fact that Shyamalan uses few locations and almost no special effects in telling his story like the old Twilight Zones. The aliens themselves, however, are just a cut above what Ed Wood might have dreamed up. My problem with them is the same one I have with real-life crop circles. You mean these guys traveled millions of miles, maybe even light years, and all they can do is squash some corn stalks? Moreover, even Ed gave his aliens toy ray-guns; the soldiers these guys drop are only armed with claws and a bit of noxious gas!
It doesn't matter though because ultimately the story Shyamalan is telling is about Graham's faith and he does that quite well with strategically placed flashbacks amid a carefully paced plot that keeps you on edge. It's undeniably entertaining and refreshingly it comes without all the cosmetic fireballs that mark so much Hollywood fare. File it as gourmet popcorn.
(C) 2002 - Rusty Pipes
SHOW: Psychedelic Breakfast w/Flowmotion
Venue: The Rainbow, Seattle, WA
Date: July 19, 2002
Reviewed by Shaun Dale
OK, the billing should be Flowmotion w/Psychedelic Breakfast, since PB were opening for the local favorites, but my bet is that the Connecticut based jamsters will be headlining when they make their second trip to the Northwest. That's partly because of my undisguised enthusiasm for them, and partly because of the hugely positive reaction they earned with their first Seattle appearance.
Fresh from their dates at the High Sierra Music Festival, which helped build the room in Seattle as High Sierra vets who had seen Psychedelic Breakfast lined up for a second helping, they mixed tracks from their latest release, Deuce, with material I'd never heard; but the standard was consistently high, and PB guitarist Tim Palmieri was consistently amazing. As impressed as I was by his recorded work, I was only partly prepared for the experience of his live performance. The man burns. Their set was truncated because of their opener status, but their closing number, a cover of Santana's "Soul Sacrifice," left everyone in the room looking forward to their next visit.
Flowmotion turned in a tasty, groove-oriented show that kept the crowd happy and dancing. I was unfamiliar with the band and the material, but heard enough to consider them worth catching up on.
(C) 2002 - Shaun Dale