Kip's Movie & Music Reviews

Everybody likes Radiohead, right? Michael Stipe (of REM fame and one bald motherfucker to boot) once said that if his band was as good as Radiohead they would have broken up after their 3rd album. Which, of course, only makes us wish that they WERE as good as Radiohead.

Then again, had they called it quits at that point in their career they would no doubt be remembered as being every bit as good as Radiohead is, and better. Alas, they went on to release "Up".

Noone can do what Radiohead seems to pull off effortlessly. Some have tried with a modicum of success (Coldplay). Others have failed miserably (about 2/3 of every whiny indie band who came on the scene since the release of "OK Computer"). The ones who got lucky, conjuring up the spirit of the band without sounding like copycats, have made some very enjoyable music. The failures, who definately are in the majority here, make you wish Radiohead had never gotten a record deal.

Which is a testament to how great "OK Computer" really was...am instant classic. Hipsters balked at Rolling Stone magazines comparison of the album to Pink Floyd's masterpiece "Dark Side of the Moon". Personally I don't see it. I hear much more Allman Brothers influence. Songs like "Subterranean Homesick Alien" and "Airbag" make me think of "Eat a Peach" every single time. The Floyd connection is understandable, but I hear more Gregg Allman than Roger Waters on that album.

Now, three frenzetic albums later, Yorke and Co. return with the much-anticipated "In Rainbows". With it's release the band can once again claim the level of greatness that Michael Stipe was so jealous of. It looks as if they are destined for immortality with this record, which may be their best work since "The Bends".

"In Rainbows" kicks off with "Black Dog", a lumbering, sweaty, sex-charged number that features the mammoth drum stylings of Phil Selway. His technique can only legitimately be compared to the early work of Phil Collins, as evidenced by the incredible flourishes that introduce the next track, "Rock and Roll". Rarely has Thom Yorke's voice conveyed the sheer bliss that comes with true rockin' as he does here. The last time he came this close was on "Fake Plastic Trees".

Shifting gears radically, Jonny Greenwood picks up an acoustic guitar as Yorke spins a Tolkien influenced yarn, "The Battle of Evermore". The spooky atmosphere is only heightened by the vocal stylings of Judy Collins, who is the perfect duet partner for this kind of "Lord of the Rings" flavored nonsense.

Once again shifting gears, Greenwood retains the acoustic guitar and gingerly opens the album's centerpiece, "Stairway to Heaven". Cryptic lyrics match perfectly with the serene music wafting in and out of the first half of the song. Then, straight out of nowhere, Ed O'brien's processed electric guitar shatters the tranquility and leads the song into territory previously uncharted by Radiohead, an almost pre-metal cacaphony. Fine solos by Greenwood and O'Brien abound. Yorke delivers one of the best lyrics he's ever written, "To be a rock and not to roll". Classic! All the naysayers who slagged "Kid A" and "Amnesiac" will surely celebrate the band's return to guitar based music.

"Misty Mountain Hop" (yet another Tolkien reference...these guys must have a lot of time on their hands) and "Four Sticks" open the second half of "In Rainbows". Both are fine songs, but they lose a bit of momentum in following "Stairway to Heaven". It must be noted, however, that Selway once again kicks ass on "Four Sticks". There are several times in this song where he manages to conjure the spirit of John Bonham.

Thom Yorke sounds more relaxed than he ever has on "Going to California", in which he laments the cruelty of a woman unkind who smoked his stuff and drank all his wine. This is as laid back as I've ever heard him. Maybe TOO laid back. At times he sounds like he's fighting an unsuccesful battle with rapidly approaching sleep. But it works, much in the same way that "Everything In It's Right Place" was the perfect opener for "Kid A". This time Colin Greenwood gets to lay down the bass and show you what he can do with a Martin acoustic. He is a fine player, and his style is remakably different than his brother Jonny's more intricate picking (just compare this one with "The Battle of Evermore"...you'll see what I mean...and if you don't, well my friend, you've got a tin ear).

"In Rainbows" concludes with the thunderous behemoth "When the Levee Breaks". Radiohead have never been a band to flirt with Mississippi delta blues, but they have succeeded here in merging Son House with Iron Butterfly. John Popper (of Blues Traveler fame) sits in and lays down a blistering harmonica track that is as far removed from his usual over-played fare as this album is from "Pablo Honey" (Radiohead's 3rd...many say it's their best). A crazy good song that will make you want to push the "repeat" button before you listen to the rest of the album again and again and again and again and again and again and again...because THAT'S what Radiohead fans do.

All in all, "In Rainbows" is a very satisfying outing from a band whose 9 albums have covered the spectrum from grunge that would have made the late great Cobain proud to a jazz fusion sensibility culled from months of listening to Pat Metheny records. Oh, they've had their rough times---who can forget their tribute to Pete Seeger or the "all-covers" project that ingeniously reconstructed chestnuts from influences like Giorgio Moroder, Hanoi Rocks, Bob Wills & Hoobastank---but all in all this band has delivered the goods more times than the Pizza Hut guy on April 20th.

"In Rainbows" will go down in the rock history books as one of the greatest albums of all time. It would not surprise me if Rolling Stone had the gall to compare it to "Led Zeppelin IV". If they do, the Radioheads of the world will have a good reason to boycott that silly magazine. If you're going to compare it to anything, at least be realistic...the album sounds more like "Appetite for Destruction" than anything else.

5 out of 5 stars

"Duck Soup" is, without a doubt, one of the most emotionally exhausting films I have seen in many years ("Ordinary People", maybe, or the last six or seven Steven Seagal movies). Matt Damon stars as Groucho Marx in this lurid tale of desire thwarted.

Groucho marries a lovely seamstress named Lily (Jennifer Lopez) and periodically he tells her of his favorite sexual fantasy...being a cuckold and sharing her with other men. She listens but does not offer even a hint of what she thinks about it. Several years go by and Lily finds herself arranging a threesome with Groucho's brothers Harpo (Matt Dillon) and Zeppo (Ryan Gosling)...this all takes place on one of her regular weekend visits. She meets them in a cheap hotel room and she has all her camera gear set up. In the beginning the guys had some doubts about being filmed, but Lily was the kind of gal who could convince a man that anything she desires is worth the cost paid for it.

The evening ends and Lily has her movie. She goes home and calls for Groucho. Marx saunters into the room and sits next to her. Videotape in hand, she asks him if he had ever been really serious about sharing her with other men.

Groucho is taken aback. All this time he had been hinting and she hadn't so much as validate that she'd even heard. Now she brings it up and he can tell she's serious. He thinks long and hard about it and decides that fantasies should probably remain just that.

"Too late", she says.

And it is at this point that "Duck Soup" establishes itself as a postmodern masterwork. How does Groucho react as he watches videotape of his wife with two big, beefy black men. Does he wimp out and let it bring him down? Does he rejoice now that he is a genuine certified cuckold? Could this be a new chapter in their marriage, primarily to their sex life? Does Harpo play the harp or is it the piano in this one? Both? How does Gosling pull off the Zeppo character? Does he infuse it with the charm and intimacy of the real deal? Isn't it neat to think of Jennifer Lopez as a slut for a change?

Dillon's a little weak, but overall "Duck Soup" is a solid 4 out of 5.

Little Big Town...Big Little Town. Either way you spin it, it don't make sense. How can a "little" town be big? How can a "big" town be little? This contemporary country quartet are doomed from the start because they've got a nonsensical name. Might as well have named it "Hot Cold Brew" or "Left Right Cattle Prod". "Up Down Bunny Rabbit" would make as much sense as Little Big Town.

Have you seen their video? Not the new one ("I'm With the Band") but the one before? Every one of those bozos look like their posing for a portrait at a studio in Wal-Mart or Sears. Not just in a few of the shots...not even in most of them...in ALL of them. Each frame makes you want to wipe those bogus smiles right off of their faces.

As for "I'm With the Band"...you can tell that one member, the one with the artificially curled hair, is pregnant, about to pop. I wonder if one of the other guys in the band is the daddy? It may be that one of the guys in the band is her husband...but that still leaves me to wonder if the other guy is the kid's pop. Stranger things have happened.

As you can see, Little Big Town is pretty much a worthless endeavour for all involved. Anyone who has spent money on their "music" should demand a refund. As for the rest of us...

1 out of 5 Stars

PS...Though it is obvious that Little Big Town has a silly name and worthless music, you have to admit that the two gals look BITCHIN' in the above photo...
***Pant Pant Drool Drool***

"Eastern Promises", David Cronenberg's latest fright-fest, is most definitely one of the most disturbing movies I've seen in a long time.

Don't get me wrong...although it is creepy as all fuck, there are many aspects of the film that redeem it from what can only be described as C-grade top shelf horror show fare. Viggo Mortensen's performance, for instance, is Oscar worthy. He has not exuded such brash confidence since 05's smash romantic comedy, "A History of Violence".

Moreover, it was a stroke of genius on Cronenberg's part in pairing Mortensen with Humphrey Bogart. The two actors play off each with such ease that you often find yourself wondering if they may have been twins separated at birth. Bogart's steamy affair with Naomi Watts is filled with an authenticity rarely seen in this day and age. It can't be easy working with a screen legend of Mr. Bogart's well-earned status, but Mortensen rises to the occasion with an ease unheard of in this age of disposable "talent".

"Eastern Promises" is a well made hybrid of "Goodfellas" and the hit television sensation "American Idol". Dean "Jelly" Clark (Mortensen), is record producer working on the west coast. Leading a double life he also moonlights as an unauthorized hit man for the Costra Nostra. One night after a particularly successful recording session with Dig "Word" Russel (Snoop Doggy Dogg) he finds himself channel surfing in the lounge. By happenstance (or fate, what have you) he lands on the Fox network's re-broadcast of the previous evening's "American Idol". It is here that he spots Peggy "Sweet-tooth" Bernard (Naomi Watts), who has managed, through sheer persistence, to make it to the final round of the competition.

Bernard knows she hasn't got a chance in hell of winning the competition. The American public is infatuated with her competitor, the baby-faced Randy "BabyFace" Nelson (masterfully portrayed by Ryan Gosling). It almost goes without saying that Gosling's character will win the public's deciding vote.

"Jelly" Clark finds himself a victim of "love at first sight". He pulls some strings and secures a meeting with her.

Taking her to a swank eatery in San Francisco, he tries to win her love with offers of success on American Idol. "I can take care of this," he proclaims, his right hand fondling the 45 Magnum on his waist, drawing it ever so slightly from beneath his coat jacket so she knows he means business.

The idea seems like a good one to "Sweet-tooth", and so she tells him to go for it. Viggo's a nice looking man, and she knows she could do worse, so what the hell, right? "Jelly" makes a few calls, as he doesn't want to do the wack job alone. "Babyface" is marked for an early grave, but "Jelly" has too much riding on the success of "Word"'s career to pull the job off by himself (flashing his gun at Watts had only been a hint of what he was capable of doing if he had to...he much preferred outsourcing, though).

So he eventually contacts an associate he knew from way back in the days when he made his living hijacking beer trucks. Humphrey Bogart plays Raymond Cushing, a small time ant farmer moonlighting as an unauthorized hit man for the Costra Nostra, with operations based in the Bronx. It's a long ways from New York to Cali, Chandler lets it be known. Clark insists the trip would be worth the effort.

Clark offers Cushing a half million dollars to make the trip, put a bullet in Nelson's head, dispose of the body, then join him in making "Sweet-tooth"'s dream come true. Bogart jumps at the chance, but Mortensen says he needs to cover his own ass, after all, half a million is a lot of moolah. And so he lays out this laundry list of requirements that Bogart must meet. The money, Cushing thought, was worth the promises he had to make to "Jelly" before the job could be approved. The Eastern Promises secured, the action begins.

Without giving too much more of the storyline away, I'll only tell you that at one point Bogart betrays Morgensen and winds up in a swingers club with Watts. Initially the visit was little more than an aspect of some research that needed to be done on the infrastructure of "American Idol". But the sights and smells of the two dozen members swinging like monkeys in the trees is too much for both of them. They eventually wind up in a private booth. Naomi Watts, admittedly, is no Ingrid Bergman, but Humphrey doesn't seem to mind. She is, after all, a 21st Century American Phenomenon, and soon to be the new "American Idol", as all the Eastern Promises are fulfilled.

Damn good movie, great chemistry between Mortensen, Watts & Bogart. Snoop Dogg has never been better (his short-but-sweet performance in "Eastern Promises" is even better than his starring role in "Bones"). All in all, I give this Cronenberg masterpiece 4 out of 5 Stars.

Labels: Movies