The World's End (2013)

JohnnyTwoToes finds this to be the weakest of the Cornetto trilogy

Edgar Wright is a talented writer and director and with Simon Pegg as a co-writer of The World's End (TWE), one would think the final film of the Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Edgar Wright "The Three Flavors Cornetto" trilogy could do no wrong. After a very well done first and second act, the final act is a complete breakdown of an otherwise clever and funny film. 

Simon Pegg is Gary King, a 40ish adult who has never grown up and still laments the final boys night out in his hometown, in which he and his five best friends ran the table of twelve pubs on the Golden Mile; drinking ale in all the twelve pubs over a mile. Now, in present day, Gary, who is in what appears to be a rehab facility, still wants to go back and finish what they never did. Only problem now is the others are all grown up, mostly married with children and are career minded individuals; read responsible adults. 

Even Andy, (Nick Frost) has given up all alcoholic beverages. Still, King looks up all of the old buddies and somehow convinces them to meet back at their home town and finish the Golden Mile. None of them still thinks very highly of Gary but for the sake of the plot they all end up in Newton Haven for the pub crawl. About halfway through a discovery is made of the town which leaves our heroes fighting for survival.....and yes, this still tries to remain a comedy, for the most part. 

I loved Shaun Of The Dead and enjoyed Hot Fuzz even more and Simon Pegg has mega star written all over him. He was terrific in the first two films playing the button down, responsible adult to Nick Frost's simpler slacker alter ego. Now, the two have flipped personas and Gary is the mess and Andy (Frost) is the responsible one. Pegg was born to play Gary and I mean that in the best possible sense, too. 

Gary is a mess. Disheveled and unkempt, he has made a life of nothing but living to excess. Overindulged in drugs, alcohol and sex, King is still 18 at heart. He is vulgar, insensitive, selfishly narcissistic but determined that THIS night will be the best damn night EVER, or at least die trying. Dressed all in black and adorned with enough jewelry to start a pawn shop, Pegg nails it as Gary and should be considered for an Oscar. He starts the film out with some history behind he and his mates at a support group meeting and from there on Pegg is in full offence mode. Nothing is sacred and everything is fair game. Pegg chews up scene after scene, spitting, spewing and guzzling enough ale to sideline a horse as well as waxing on about how this is the life. 

He induces most of the laughs in TWE, but to be fair the rest of the cast in addition to Pegg and Frost, are terrific as well and the casting is PERFECT. You have Paddy Considine, Martin Freeman (both in at least one or both of the previously mention films of this trilogy) with Eddie Marsan and the positively gorgeous Rosamund Pike as Freeman's sister. They are all excellent and have some very funny lines as well. 

Where the film goes wrong is in the third act. The film's third act is not a question of the subject matter, rather how is was handled. The film loses a lot of the humor and settles into another chase picture churned out from the assembly line of predictable films institute. What started out as a refreshing and observant comedy about boys becoming men and life's responsibility turns out to be a breakdown of ideas and the final few scenes are so poorly done I was kind of angry. Angry that so much had been done right that to squander the end with bad writing and poor direction was really a buzz kill. Still, TWE has a great first two acts and Steven Price's score (hot off of composing the score to Gravity) are raucous fun. 

Is TWE worth watching; yes and no. I suppose there is enough here to garner a single viewing, but I have watched Shaun Of The Dead and Hot Fuzz numerous times and enjoy them every time. They are both THAT well written, directed and acted. TWE is maybe worth one and then done, as they say. The World's End will only make you want to re-watch the first two with fond regards. The World's End-**1/2 out of 4

Taking a Impromptu Break

Lost in Technical Difficulties

Its been a week since the last post. Its quite probable you suspect that the Websnacker Blog is somewhat suffering from a lack of interest by yours truly (or the contributors). You are wrong. If something is to blame, its been problems with Google Blogger, the blogging suite this blog runs on! After a week of intermittent logouts, missing drafts and other misadventures, it is back to normal or so it seems. Lets give it a day more and blog posts will start again.

In all honesty, the last 2 months have been physically, financially and emotionally taxing! With so many and varied interests (and commitments) - mainly to do with work, travel and family, the Websnacker has indeed been super busy. However, with a full new year (OK 11 months) ahead of us, rest assured that you can expect a lot more from the Websnacker and the blogging crew in the days to come! Thanks again for all the love and support! 

The Wolverine (2013)

JohnnyTwoToes complains that this was a movie half done

Hugh Jackman reprises his role as the title character in James Mangold's The Wolverine (2013), a decent if not great movie that suffers from far too much stuffing. I say stuffing as this is a film with way too many characters and not enough story behind them. Less would have been A LOT more.

The film picks up the Wolverine as he is in a hole about thirty feet under ground in a Japanese World War II POW camp, right when the Americans drop the Atomic bomb on Nagasaki. He saves one of the Japanese commanders, Yashida, from the blast and years later Yashida, now a billionaire business man wants to return the favor to the Wolverine. He offers a chance to make Wolverine human, again with out the steel bladed knuckles. Wolverine refuses, but then becomes involved with a series of contrived plot mechanisms that only seem to exist so there is plenty of Jackman snarling, growling, scowling and looking like he is ready to cough up a hairball. 

The Wolverine seems to have a lot going on with at least six different characters that are not very interesting and are not given a lot to do. There is the daughter, Mariko (Tao Okamoto), the street urchin turned half daughter, Yukio (Rila Fukushima), the son, Shingen (Hiroyuki Sanada), the nefarious assistant, Viper (Svetlana Khodachenkova), the Ninja assassin/protector Harada (Will Yun Lee) and Noburo (Brain Tee). I know I am forgetting at least one or two more characters that seem to come and go with little explanation or development. 

Of all of these characters I would have dropped all of them except Viper, Yukio and Yashida. I would even drop Yashida if it weren't for the fact that he is the main character behind most of the film's action. There are Ninjas, Yakuza and all matter of street thugs that seem to pop up only to be quickly dispatched. None of the characters seem to have a lot to say to each other and there are long periods where not much happens at all. 

I don't mind a film that has lots of characters as long as it makes good use of them. Here they seem to exist to simply slow the story down with contrived plot devices like an insipid fight on top of a bullet train in Japan. It looks cheaply done in a studio. I know people will burn up my e-mail saying that I need to go easy because this is based on a comic book and is not real, blah, blah, blah. I KNOW this is fantasy and all that but I still would like to see something rooted in reality and not look like it was slapped together. For me, that helps sell the story and gets me invested in the characters. 

Now, I will say some of the action is well done, and Jackman is a fine actor who sells it very well. But the script written by Mark Bomback and Scott Frank does very little with the lead and lets the rest languish with boring, underdeveloped characters and stale plot devices. Still, there is some fun to be had with some of the action and there are some humorous lines, mostly delivered with dead pan seriousness by Wolverine. Marco Beltrami's score ramps up the action and the cinematography is beautiful as it makes good use of the Japanese locations. But as a whole, The Wolverine is overloaded and seems to sputter along to an almost laughable climax. Some will say I have been too hard on this film but, I have to call it like I see it. Save your money and see another Hugh Jackman film which is one of 2013's best films, Prisoners. The Wolverine-**1/2 out of 4

Gravity (2013) - Reviewing 2013's Best Movies

JohnnyTwoToes praises the superlative Space Masterpiece by Alfonso Cuaron

Not since Stanley Kubrick's 2001 A Space Odyssey and The Right Stuff has there been a more convincingly effective scifi film about space and the true dangers of space travel than in Alfonso Cuaron's masterpiece, Gravity. The film has been praised by just about everybody that has seen it, as one of, if not the very best film of 2013. It is definitely in the top five of my list. 

Gravity tells a rather simple story of a group of astronauts in space repairing their shuttle when to their horror a Russian satellite showers space debris on them while they are out of the shuttle (in space literally). The Russians have apparently shot one of their own satellites out of the cosmos because it has stopped working. Dr. Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) becomes unattached from the shuttle and the commander named Matt Kowlaski tries to get her back to the shuttle. There is more to the story but I will not ruin it for viewers who are yet to see this gem. So, the less you know the better. 

Gravity is told in real time at 90 minutes, because that is the amount of time it takes for the space station (shuttle) and the space debris to orbit the Earth. As most people know there is virtually no sound in space and, as the film opens we are told it can be as cold as minus 158 degrees below zero (or even worse). Most of the rest of the film for the most part is as scientifically accurate as director Cuaron can make it. Sound is muffled since there is virtually no sound in space (because there is noty oxygen). Some of the sounds in the film were added to give the film some scope, but VERY few. 

Cauron, cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki and visual effects supervisor Tim Webber have gone to great pains to make Gravity as authentic as possible and it shows. Gravity is a film that I watched with my mouth open through a great number of scenes. It is shockingly terrifying in its story and you will be stunned that anyone could make it through this scenario and keep their wits about them. Most of us (most definitely myself included) would be in panic mode. But Gravity shows that the astronauts are well trained and expect the very worst, but hope for the best. 

The script by Alfonso and his son Jonas Cuaron is a thoughtful one. The characters are not superheroes but real people and whatever issues they have within their own lives is played out very subtlety and is never overdone. The acting and writing are simpatico in Gravity which gives the story more potency and Sandra Bullock as Dr. Ryan Stone gives an Oscar caliber performance. She is a strong woman but is not above showing her frailty, and George Clooney provides some swagger as the commander of the shuttle.

And this brings me to the fantastic score by Steven Price. English composer, Price provides an elegantly powerful score that is mostly electronic but it is one worthy of an Oscar. I put the "but" in there because the Academy seems to frown on scores that are mostly electronic opting for the big, sweeping Orchestral soundtracks (I love all kinds). The last score to win the Oscar was Vangelis for Chariots of Fire from 1981 (unless someone knows something different). Mr. Price is a relative newcomer to scoring big feature films but his score is simply beautiful. It is music that you can listen to even without the film and is worth purchasing from any retailer that has it. 

Gravity has generated a lot of Oscar buzz and with good reason. It is a fantastic film that will leave you in awe both technically and as entertainment. I spent most of the time with my hand over my mouth or wincing, seeing how far the film would push the viewer into watching and it is a literal, edge of your seat thriller. Hopefully, the Academy will see it the same way next March (Oscar night). Gravity-**** out of four

Friday Flashback - Hits from the 80s & 90s - Part 1

Forgotten Gems from the 80s and 90s

Its Friday and the first post for 2014. What better way than listening to some great forgotten pop rock tracks from the 80s and 90s featuring Bruce Cockburn, Del Amitri, Big Dish, Geneva and more!

This is also a fulfillment of a long pending promise (to many reader requests) to repost all deleted music blog posts. Its a start of sorts but this is a promise the Websnacker intends to completely fulfill! Now, lets get back to the music..

Bruce Cockburn - If I Had a Rocket Launcher (4:59) 

Big Dish - Miss America (3:56) 

Geneva - If You Have To Go (4:07)

Jimmy Davis & Junction - Kick The Wall (3:38) 

Eddie and the Tide - One in a Million (4:07) 

Eight Seconds - Kiss You (When It's Dangerous) (4:05) 

La Marca - Hold on Blue Eyes (The Wraith Soundtrack) (4:01)

Del Amitri - Buttons On My Clothes (4:05)

Friday Flashback - Hits from the 80s & 90s - Part 1 from Websnacker on 8tracks Radio.

Happy New Year 2014

Wishing everyone a great 2014!

Happy New Year to all the nice folks who read this blog! On this momentous occasion as we enter a brand New Year, author Neil Gaiman's quote comes to mind "I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes. Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You’re doing things you’ve never done before, and more importantly, you’re Doing Something"! 

Rock On, do new things and remember to like the Websnacker Fanpage on Facebook.

Gravity (2013) Film Score - Steven Price

JohnnyTwoToes reviews one of the very best film scores of 2013! 

Gravity (2013) is one of the best films I have seen all year, and the score should be, at the very least, given an Oscar nod but wanting and actual reality are two different things especially when it comes to the Academy awards. English born Steven Price has scored only a few main stream films, full length films; Attack The Block, The World's End and Gravity. Both The World's End and Gravity were this year's films, so Steven Price is a relative newcomer. 

Gravity is such a great film and deserves Oscar contention in so many categories but the score is so important to a film like this. It can either be a blessing or a curse. The fact that Price has completed a near perfect film with a score that is as thrilling and breath catching as the film itself. It is a mostly electronic score with only a few acoustical instruments used in the final theme, "Gravity". The first track, "Above Earth" is short but sets up the chaos that ensues, and "Debris" is a real nail biting track that pits our heroes for a battle to survive. "The Void" and "Atlantis" are more soothing tracks as our heroes figure out a way to make it to another space station. 

Mr. Price continues to break our hearts with the lengthy track of "Don't Let Go". After lulling us into our own space, he then jars us awake with "Airlock" and "Fire". "ISS" is a beautiful track as you can almost imagine floating high above Earth looking into the vastness of space. There are several long tracks that are peppered throughout the score which makes the run time of the score of about 75 minutes, THANKFULLY. 

Price sprinkles little bleeps, chirps and static in the background of his score to simulate the passing of satellites, and broken radio transmissions and actually times it with the pace of the track. He also abruptly breaks the song off as if to simulate a broken transmission which is a nice touch, along with a ringing tone like we would here when hear a loud bang that makes your own ears ring. "Parachute" and "In The Blind" is a mixture of hair raising and soothing elements to continue the plight of our heroes. "Aurora Borealis" and "Aninqaaq" are two more soft, melancholy tracks that have the little chirps of the passing satellites in its background and they are two of my favorite tracks; simply, heart wrenchingly beautiful. The remaining tracks, "Soyuz", "Tiangong", "Shenzou" and the end credits theme "Gravity" are a majestic mix of hope and life as our heroes seek to survive and not to give up hope. 

Composing a score is hard enough. Making all of the pieces come together to make the film work is a tough nut to crack. Composing a score for a film like Gravity would be even more difficult. We never really see the actor's faces so we rely on the actor's vocal fluctuation and the music to tell the story. The music for Gravity really is as much a character as any of the performances and director Alfonso Cuaron has constructed a film around the score rather than the score being chopped up and inserted in bits here and there. What drove the film for me was the score (not taking anything away from the acting and such) and Mr. Price has composed a heroically powerful score that deserves a listen to and it stands as its own creation, not just for the film. He is a composer to watch out!

Joyous Christmas and Happy Holidays

Wishing you all a Happy, Merry Christmas

Christmas is here again. From the Websnacker and his blogging crew, we thank you for your love and wish you a joyous Christmas, fun filled holidays and a smashing New year ahead! And remember, keep readin' so that we can keep bloggin'! Cheer on!!

The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones (2013)

JohnnyTwoToes is disappointed with this dull teen adventure fantasy 

Okay, so while I may not be the target audience for The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones (TMI: COB), I still can hope for a remotely intelligent and thoughtful film with a dash of humor and adventure. RIGHT? Well, if you said yes to any of those questions or if you have a pulse and enjoy films, then TMI: COB is not for you. 

This film has been compared to other films like Harry Potter and Lord of The Rings not only in its subject matter but in its execution, with good reason. Of all the films this has been compared to,TMI: COB is an inferior rendition at the very best. Sorry, but I have to be honest. 

TMI: COB tells the story of a young girl named Clary (Lily Collins), who discovers she is a Shadowhunter; a demon killing Buffy if you will. She witnesses a strange killing in a nightclub on her birthday but only she can see it so, naturally everyone including her best friend, Simon (Robert Sheehan) think she is losing her marbles. Jace (Jamie Campbell Bower) is her mentor in the demon slaying world along with Alec (Kevin Zegers donning a very good British accent) and Isabelle (Jemima West). Clary's mother, Jocelyn (Lena Headey) harbors the dark secret of the Downworld but when demons take Jocelyn and put her into some kind of coma it is up to the Scooby gang to find her and slay some demons. *Yawn*. 

TMI:COB is a great looking film, visually. The cast is a great looking one, too, despite the over applied makeup to Jamie Campbell Bower as Jace. He looks like some kind of crossing dressing ghoul, complete with an almost anorexic frame, tattoos, sunken eyes and eye liner for those sunken eyes!!!

The problems with TMI:COB is pretty much EVERYTHING. It is poorly acted, the characters are one dimensional, the script (written by Jessica Postigo) is an amalgamation of not only Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, but Underworld, Blood and Chocolate, Blade and pretty much any teen fantasy film. This has all been done before and done better. 

Like I said, I know I am not the target audience but I am sure the Harry Potter films were INTENDED for a younger audience than an average adult. How is it a film like TMI is such a wretched one? Simple. The characters are all. Even when Jared Harris (Giles to Buffy's Clary), and Jonathan Rhys Meyers as the main villain, Valentine enter the film (almost 90 minutes into it), by then it is too little, too late. These characters have nothing intelligent to say or do and they all wander through set piece after set piece with dull action scenes and predictability throughout the entire story. How many times do we have to sit through the the hero and the heroine falling on top of each other, their lips nearly locked and their eyes entrancing each other as that fleeting sexual moment arises. Just as they seem to lock up in each others arms and passions, they immediately clear their throats and jump to their feet. Why? Because we can't have these two bumping uglies just yet. Sadly, we have two more films for them to do the deed and create more little Shadowhunters. There is that scene as well as a laughable one in which our hero and heroine lock lips in a building called The Institute. Yes, folks they lock up and the music swells and then it starts to rain on them as they embrace. IN THE BUILDING, mind you. Yes, just like Pig Pen from the Peanuts, who has a cloud of dust following him around wherever he goes, these two have well cued rain clouds. Either that or someone needs to get the sprinkler system looked at. I could just go on and on..

TMI: COB is an excruciatingly inept film in just about every area. Uninteresting, dull, predictable and enough sappy nonsense to make even a die hard teenage girl puke up her Coke and Juju beans. Only the visual effects and Atli Orvarsson's score seemed to keep me from gouging out my my eyes with my drink straw. Harry Potter and just about every other referenced film TMI: COB is derived from shows you can have a great script, intelligent and interesting characters and competent direction to make a great film that appeals to all demographics. Norwegian Director Harald Zwart (One Night At McCool's, 2009's Karate Kid) is more than able to direct good films but this is certainly not one of them. Worse news, yet? A sequel is coming in the not too distant future. Up to this point, with the same director and writer. They wouldn't? Would they? Oh, most certainly they would. City Of Bones: The Mortal Instruments-* out of 4.

Shoulda Been Home - Robert Cray

Revisiting a true Blues all time Classic

In his 2001 album, "Shoulda Been Home", the 5 time Grammy winner Robert Cray, one of the founding fathers of Contemporary Blues almost completely eschews that genre in favor of sweaty retro-style Memphis soul of the Hi and Stax variety. Using the twin tools of his guitar playing and singing, both equally smooth and soulful, Robert Cray helped reinvent the blues, and that’s not only a heavy burden to carry, in many ways it’s a horrible legacy to live down.

Not that Cray’s slick, sultry brand of blues has anything more than rudimentarily in common with that particular ilk of soulless, toothless, wankery. It’s just that he’s the Nirvana to their Bush, a great musician who broke through and opened the door for a wave of uninspired and homogenized imitations. Soulful, fiery and funky proof that slick and smooth doesn’t have to be boring and lukewarm and detached. Maybe that’s the reason why Shoulda Been Home finds Cray and his band singing and playing what is basically Blues-tinged Soul music and not the other way around. Or maybe the appeal of that old O.V. Hill, Otis Redding style music was just too irresistible. They certainly didn’t switch up their styles because of a lack of critical acclaim.

Each of the Robert Cray Band’s previous 8 albums have been nominated for a Grammy, including 1999’s Take Your Shoes Off, a Grammy winner that also mined the fertile Memphis Soul sound. Shoulda Been Home continues that winning formula, with Cray handling the songwriting on about half of the tracks. His originals are strong, holding their own and then some next to Mack Rice and Elmore James classics.

That’s right, Elmore James. Cray and co. certainly haven’t abandoned the blues completely. The Chuck Berry-ish version of James’ “Cry For Me Baby” is testament to that, as are many of the scorching yet restrained guitar solos that Cray sprinkles throughout the album. Remember to check out “Baby’s Arms,” a Cray original and the opening track -it’s an upbeat tune featuring an all-star horn section, and it’s soulful, fiery and funky proof that slick and smooth doesn’t have to be boring or lukewarm and detached.If you want a true Blues classic from the early 2000's, look no further!