Change Your Image
mikeg19_82
Reviews
Troy (2004)
Good fight scenes but sappy lines
This movie had some great fight scenes, thankfully, it's not over-the-top violence that can distract the audience and dull the story. The battles were entertaining. The rest of the story was dull and forgettable. The characterization was pathetic and I didn't really feel anything for either the good guys of troy or the bad guys of greece and sparta. There were some really bad lines too as when Paris is complementing his father the night before he is to battle Agamemnon and says something along the lines of "Father, you are a good leader because you love your city and everyone in it", come on, in an "epic", a "classic hero's tale"? It's more like a Sunday night NBC movie. But with better costumes. The sets were so obviously fake that you'd think it was taken straight from the ten commandments set.
Bottom line: does not do the illiad justice. Any classics professor would probably shrug this off as a teeny bopper movie for people who'd only study history if Brad Pitt and some sexy European women took lead roles in it.
Hopefully Wolfgang won't do a Gilgamesh movie.
Pearl Jam: Touring Band 2000 (2001)
It's like I'm actually there!
I saw the Alpine Valley show ("Dissident" in Touring Band was shot there) and I felt the 20 degree cold air blowing through my ears mixed in with Pearl Jam's music while watching this DVD. The sound is excellent and it includes a Matt (Cameron)-cam, interesting because the drummer is overlooked too much in music, that shows the drummer side of a concert. This movie is well-titled and will allow the audience to feel what it's really like at a Pearl Jam concert. A+.
Cabin Boy (1994)
Laugh-out-Loud
Chris Elliot is hilarious! The scene where the fancy lad himself is dancing on the boat, while the drunk stinking crew is throwing beer cans and poking him with a stick, will get you laughing. A must-see for anyone with a sense of humor.
The Song Remains the Same (1976)
A Front-row seat
The Song Remains the Same gets a 10 out of 10. The movie makes up in cinematography what it loses in sound quality. I may not know how a 1973 concert was first hand, but the video puts me in a security guard position in front of the railing sqaured up with Jimmy Page and Robert Plant.
The fairy tale parts of Plant, Bonham, Jones and Page are interesting as they show what each man had on his mind at the time: maybe these are inspirations for each band member (pounding of engines/pounding of drums). Though the video is best watched skipping past Peter Grant's fantasy because he's not in Led Zeppelin, he's the manager.
Most memorable scene: Inside Madison Square Garden with the lights off when the drums kick in for "Rock 'n' Roll" to start the show, when the first snare-cymbal measure is completed the lights go on, the band enters, crowd goes wild.