Author: Mosh

Buckcherry – The Arches, Glasgow

Buckcherry
Image by Iain Purdie via Flickr

[More pics of Buckcherry on this Flickr set]

A brief review of this gig and a little late posting it due to being a) busy and b) ill. This is the second time I’ve had a chance to catch Buckcherry after their support slot under Disturbed in December at the SECC. It is the first time I’ve been to The Arches and it’s an OK venue though its unusual shape makes it a little awkward to get a decent view from far back. So I pushed my way to the front after they opened with “Dead”.

They’re definitely a good live band, with a great variety of tracks but fitting firmly into the category of “bouncy, singalong rock”. The set was virtually non-stop with only the briefest of stage walk-offs before a short encore. There was no complaints about variety, either, with tracks from all their albums as far as I could tell – I was a little bit tipsy.

My only complaint was the length of the set which was only slightly over an hour. I was expecting the usual ninety minutes and would have enjoyed the extra few songs it would have given, but not to worry. Hopefully next time!

 

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Senna / Last Night (sort of)

By إبن البيطار (Own work) [GFDL (www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia CommonsJust for a change, here’s a film and a half. I don’t mean, “Wow – that was a film and a half!”. I mean I saw a film then half of another one.

Senna

Plot-in-a-nutshell: documentary about the life and times of F1 racing legend Ayrton Senna using archive footage.

See it if you like: Formula 1. Or in fact, even if you don’t. It’s worth a watch either way.

I am not an F1 fan. I appreciate the technology and so forth, but I find the sport itself deathly dull. The only way you could make F1 more boring would be to take out all the corners. Well done, America, with your NASCAR nonsense. Seriously, an oval?

However, I really enjoyed this film. Senna was a lunatic – any racer or racing fan will tell you that. He drove cars past their limits and seemingly had no fear of coming to a fiery end. He was very much a genuine natural talent at what he did – and sadly didn’t get a chance to do it for as long as he or his fans would have wished. I’m assuming this isn’t a spoiler…

The film is made completely of edited archive footage. Home video, news broadcasts, race footage – you name it, it’s all used in there. Commentary is provided by overdubbed speech from the time or more recent interviews, all in original language with subtitles where required. It is very much a documentary but one which has been edited incredibly well, especially in terms of pace.

Our story opens in the early years, and focuses on Senna’s family life and early start in Formula 1. A large section covers his love/hate/loathe/despise relationship with Alain Prost and his rise to the top of his game.

And then we start to approach that incident. At which point director Asif Kapadia slows the pace down. We start to cover individual days… then hours. We know what’s going to happen. And it’s almost an awful feeling as we can see it looming until it hits. Just like the accident itself, swiftly and suddenly.

The whole move manages to tell a superb story without bogging things down with mawkish interviews. It’s very much seen from a Senna point of view (Prost comes off looking very much the bad guy – deservedly or not, we’ll never know) and some of the footage is incredibly engaging, in particular the scenes from the pre-race drivers’ meetings.

As I said, I’m not a fan of the sport but this is a superb example of a documentary. If the film can make you interested, even if only for a while, in something you’d otherwise not show an interest in… then that’s good film-making.

Last Night

Plot-in-a-nutshell: a seemingly happily married couple each spend a night out in different cities with a bit of “will (s)he, won’t (s)he” tension around the people they’re with.

See if if you like: being able to leave early to get dinner rather than having to sit through the whole thing.

Dear Grud, what a tedious film. There was about 20 minutes of argumentative whinging between Keira Knightley and Sam Worthington until finally they both go to different nights out – he with a woman from work (Eva Mendes) that Knightley is sure he’s banging, she with an ex that I think she was shagging while they were engaged. Or something. Frankly I’d stopped caring by that point and was spending more time looking at my watch or the insides of my eyelids than the screen.

Honestly, if I had Keira Knightley around I’d still bugger off with someone else if she acted like the spoilt little cow she comes across as in this. It wasn’t enjoyable to watch. Simply frustrating. And slow. And boring. And going nowhere by the 45 minute mark so I gave up and went home.

I came close to walking out of Pirates 4, and wish I had. I didn’t make the same mistake again.

Crap. Avoid.

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Kung Fu Panda 2

By إبن البيطار (Own work) [GFDL (www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia CommonsYet another sequel this weekend (there seem to be a staggering number of them out and upcoming right now), this one more for the kiddies.

Kung Fu Panda 2

“This could be the end of Kung Fu.”

Plot-in-a-nutshell: A threat to kung-fu is unleashed by a scary peacock. Only the gang from the first film (who else?) can stop it.

See it if you like: CGI cartoons with decent humour, great visuals and a developing story.

Like the Shrek series, Kung Fu Panda takes the events of its first film and starts to add more detail, fleshing out the characters. In this one, we focus on Po‘s past. After all, did you really thing a panda was fathered by a stork?

Surrounding this extra level of characters detail is a story about a terrifying force which could destroy kung fu as we know it. Po and his cohorts are charged with hunting down the source of this evilness and destroying it. This is done in a very visually pleasing way with some good gags and great voice acting from a superb cast.

I confess, however, that I never really warmed to it in much the way the first one never really got my imagination going. I much preferred the original on DVD after a couple of watches – I didn’t think that much of it in the cinema either. No idea why not – they’re both my kind of film – but something just didn’t hit home for me.

At least it’s a more original sequel than Hangover 2, and it kept all three kids who were with us entertained. Little Mister was so enraptured he forgot to drink his Capri-Sun for about 20 minutes.

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X-Men: First Class / The Hangover Part II

By إبن البيطار (Own work) [GFDL (www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia CommonsDue to a slow-down in film releases (I guess there’s a lull before the summer storm), we manage to play catch-up and catch the top two releases of the moment this Friday night. As a bonus, that bloody Rio Orange advert has finally been withdrawn and replaced with a new one. Which I am now heartily sick of having seen it twice.

X-Men: First Class

“Peace was never an option.”

Plot-in-a-nutshell: An “origins” tale for the X-Men, likely to be ripped apart by comics geeks for not being a word perfect adaptation of some issue of the comic from 1963.

See it if you like: superhero films with a story as well as decent action sequences.

I gather this is the first of a new trilogy of X-Men films and it’s both a sensible and enjoyable way to kick it off. Sensible in that it tells the tale of the formation of the X-Men, the first mutants being found, trained and unleashed on the world. Enjoyable in that it has a decent story as well as some well-crafted set pieces.

A fault I’ve found with too many superhero films recently is they’ve aimed for the big spectacle and let little details like plot, character development and dialogue fall by the wayside. I didn’t enjoy Thor for this reason and I confess I have my concerns about Green Lantern. I hope it proves me wrong. First Class doesn’t fall into these traps and instead manages to wrap a decent enough story with enough pizazz to keep the eye-candy addicts happy.

Oh, and there are also plenty of fit women in typically revealing superhero outfits. Jennifer Lawrence (Raven / Mystique) just made it onto my my “oh, man, I wish” list. Blue make-up or human form, I don’t care. Woof.

Throughout the film there are several nods to the events to come, while setting things into historical context. True events are moulded to fit the mutant storyline such as the Cuban missile crisis being caused by mutants somewhat less friendly than Professor Xavier‘s (James McAvoy) motley brigade. Said group are led by Kevin Bacon‘s Sebastian Shaw, a character who’s role is effectively taken by Magneto later on in X-history.

This is the best of the X-men films without a doubt. I’d rank it up there with the better superhero films as well. A decent cast, excellent effects but at heart a good story which focuses on the characters. How things will pan out in the next films now that the characters are established is anyone’s guess, but in the meantime this is well worth seeing.

The Hangover: Part II

“What is wrong with you three?”

Plot-in-a-nutshell: Seen The Hangover? It’s that. In Thailand.

See it if you like: watching a remake of an enjoyable film from only two years ago.

I’m sorely tempted to just refer you to my review of The Hangover and tell you to read it with sunglasses on and the aircon off. That’s pretty much what the scriptwriters have done here.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s still funny. It’s still outrageous, tasteless and over the top. But it’s lost that shock factor that made the first one so good. It also helps if – like the first instalment – you avoid the trailers before watching.

It’s another wedding, this time in Thailand. The same bunch are going. They decide to have a quiet drink two nights before the wedding… and wake up unable to remember what they did or where they went the night before. Oh, and one of them is missing. See what I mean? The only difference is the setting.

In its defence, had I seen this without seeing the first one I’d have rated it far higher. It’s still funny, it still makes you cringe – it’s just too much like its predecessor and too soon afterwards. I’m picky about my tasteless, monkey-porn, chicks-with-dicks filled comedy.

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The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

The Lost SymbolThe Lost Symbol by Dan Brown
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Not bad to start with, but gets incredibly waffly as it goes. Brown’s characters’ dialogue is better than some previous novels, but still stilted and unnatural in places.

The pace is great up until around half way when the chapters suddenly double in length and all the excitement seems to leave the story. Quick action gives way to long, boring philosophical arguments and the final “reveal” of the secret being searched for is incredibly underwhelming.

Also – page 578 – a progress bar and a task bar are different things. You’d think a guy who wrote a novel about the computer systems being used within the NSA would know this. Actually, remembering how poor that book was, perhaps not.

It still surprised me that Dan Brown is given so much credit for this genre of novel when he wasn’t the first to write one, and when his are certainly not amongst the best. I guess he has a good publicity department.

View all my reviews

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