Reviews

The Place Beyond the Pines

Submitted by McQ on Sat, 18/05/2013 - 6:47pm

Spoilers ahead...

"If you ride like lightning, you're gonna crash like thunder"

This quote is the sort of thing that's often used in trailers to sell a film to filmgeeks, and I've included it here because it's just a great piece of dialogue. A review will usually start off with a quote like this because it summarises the film's themes, but in this case I just had to lead with this line because it's cool all on its own. I guess that some of the allure of The Place Beyond the Pines is that it's able to have these quotable film noir moments without losing the wider narrative and themes.

Dredd Fan Films

Submitted by LT Shamrock on Thu, 16/05/2013 - 3:00pm

While 2012's Dredd was well received with mostly critical acclaim and modest box office success (in the UK and Australia anyway), a sequel to the film is looking pretty unlikely at this stage. That hasn't stopped multiple fan groups from producing their own efforts.

Judge Minty is the first of these that recently came to my attention via Comic Book Resources.

auDUDEioROCKET #47: Grizzly Bear "Shields"

Submitted by McQ on Mon, 13/05/2013 - 4:40pm

This album got all kinds of hype from 'those in the know' (The AV Club, Pitchfork, etc) plus it's fairly recent so I thought this made it ripe for checking out. It's hard coming into an album like this without much more of a frame of reference than that, so I had to keep reminding myself to listen to it over and over again before I passed judgement. When I first listened to it, I didn't really get it, even actually disliked it. The first couple of songs made me think of a really watered down Tame Impala or Wolfmother.

auDUDEioROCKET #48: Mariachi El Bronx

Submitted by McQ on Wed, 08/05/2013 - 5:08pm

I always fucking hated that mariachi music when I was a kid. It made me think of old fat guys in those stupid Three Amigos clothes getting all up in everyone's grills at American restaurants, pretending not to know English so they don't have to go away when people start shouting out "Fuck off we're trying to eat!"

Anyway, I'm much older now. I like westerns, especially spaghetti westerns, and I like eating at Mad Mex and I also enjoy drinking Coronas, so I think I'm now suitably equipped to enjoy mariachi music.

Adventures of Superman #1

Submitted by LT Shamrock on Sun, 05/05/2013 - 9:55pm

Adventures of Superman is a new DC Comics digital-first comic that is published weekly by DC Comics and sells for 99c.

Hi-Fi Gear Reviews

Submitted by The Ghetto Prince on Tue, 30/04/2013 - 10:17pm

Recently I've done a lot of research and spent a fair bit of money in order to finally get some respectable music listening gear. I like many other people had sunk into the lazy apathetic default style of music listening that befalls the best of us. Listening in the car, using in-ear headphones on my phone, through shitty computer speakers, or even sometimes through my TV. I feel ashamed but I always had a plan to fix it, and the results are simply amazing. I can not understate how good having competent Hi-Fi gear sounds.

Looking back, I've always had a hodge-podge of okay gear kicking about. My dad's old B&W speakers paired with whatever old amp I could buy from cash converters as a cash deprived Uni student for example.

Dredd Is Grud: "My Brilliant Career"

Submitted by LT Shamrock on Tue, 30/04/2013 - 4:37pm

[i]*Hello folks! This column will be for highlighting notable stories from the famous UK publication, 2000AD.

Fat Kid Rules the World

Submitted by McQ on Sun, 28/04/2013 - 6:33pm

Troy Billings (Jacob Wysocki) is an awkward, unpopular and overweight school student who decides to end his life by stepping in front of a bus. At the last minute he is saved by Marcus (Matt O'Leary), a homeless ex-student from his school. Marcus talks Troy into becoming the drummer for his punk band, despite the fact that Troy cannot play the drums and has no real interest in music. The two develop an odd friendship, something impeded by Troy's dad's distrust of Marcus and his 'alternative' lifestyle.

Fat Kid Rules the World is very much an indie coming-of-age film, not all that far removed from Jacob Wysocki's other breakout film Terri.

auDUDEio ROCKET #49: Bad Religion "The Gray Race"

Submitted by McQ on Fri, 26/04/2013 - 9:30am

Continuing on from last week, my #49 is Bad Religion's mid-'90s album The Gray Race. I'd already heard two songs from the album back when I was a teenager - the singles Punk Rock Song and A Walk. I love both of these songs a lot. So I was in the mood for some '90s punk stuff and I thought I'd finally get around to what had been in the back of my mind for a good ten years or more - checking out the album these two corkers came from.

I gotta say... I wasn't impressed! The only other Bad Religion album I've listened to is The Empire Strikes First, and I thought it was pretty good, so I was surprised to find The Gray Race kind of boring and repetitive.

auDUDEio ROCKET #50: Wye Oak "Civilian"

Submitted by McQ on Sat, 20/04/2013 - 1:38pm

Hello all! I have decided to broaden my musical horizons by ensuring that I listen to a new album every week for the next 50 weeks. These are basically album reviews but I'm not restricting myself to newly released stuff, they just have to be albums I've never heard before. Today's number, #50, is Civilian - the third album from Baltimore two-piece indie band Wye Oak. It's not the sort of music I neccessarily listen to a lot, but that's the point of broadening one's musical horizons, yeah? I'll listen to any suggestions for future entries in this list, but I reserve the right to ignore them (lol).

Wye Oak have an interesting set up...