Tag: blood

video review : The Hateful Eight

video review : The Hateful Eight

If not for Inglourious Basterds, his masterpiece, I’d say Quentin Tarantino hasn’t wowed me, in a good way, since Jackie Brown. The Hateful Eight, like Django before it, is more epic in scale than substance. There are memorable quotes; the “goddamn Mexican” bit is hilarious; but they’re too far and few between to justify the script’s grandiose verbosity. Nearly every member of The Hateful Eight is a stone-cold killer, but they’re apt to talk you to death. That should be a positive. Tarantino has long had a knack for punchy dialogue, but he seems to be losing it.

The problem of the characters only sometimes saying interesting things to one another is compounded by the fact that they’re snowed-in at the mercy of a blizzard for most of the plot, which circles around a prisoner named Daisy Domergue; the one woman and most despicable of the bunch. The haven is a lodge named Minnie’s Haberdashery and, though this virtual stage play runs for nearly three hours, the suspense and bloodshed doesn’t begin until about the halfway point. Ironically enough considering the fact that a tighter edit could make the film better in half the time.

my rating : 3 of 5

2015

audio review : Blood ( album ) … Lianne La Havas

audio review : Blood ( album ) ... Lianne La Havas

If the title is meant to hint at something bad, fans need not fear. It’s only the sophomore jinx Lianne La Havas has been stricken with. Not that her first album is good. That one does, however, have three or four stand-out songs sprinkled in among the snoozers. This new Blood set has a harder time pumping them out.

The soundscape is, again, vintage in nature. Havas makes deep soul music that could’ve just as well come from long before she was born. It’s her vocal melodies, essentially the songs themselves, that disappoint. Midnight and Tokyo are mild highlights, but What You Don’t Do is dumb and most of the others are bland.

my rating : 3 of 5

2015

video review : Black Swan

video review : Black Swan

I don’t get the aesthetic allure of ballet. What I appreciate on a sexual level is watching dainty girls parade around in tights. If Black Swan is a realistic representative of the ballet world, I’m not alone in my perversion. Lewd sex is a major theme here. It’s a driving force for nearly every major character. Even the relationship between mother and daughter had me anticipating a sex scene between the two.

The problem is that the story is too ambiguous. The diegetic reason for that is because Nina, the dancer it revolves around, tends to hallucinate. She apparently has a major mental disorder, perhaps brought on by said Mommy, whom she still lives with and clings to at the age of twenty-something. Black Swan, a movie that wasn’t really engaging in the first place, soon loses its way in a barrage of horror-flick clichés.

my rating : 2 of 5

2010

audio review : Blood On The Dance Floor [ History In The Mix ] ( album ) … Michael Jackson

audio review : Blood On The Dance Floor [ History In The Mix ] ( album ) ... Michael Jackson

This album has two titles because it is essentially two sets of songs, two EPs, combined into one.

Blood On The Dance Floor consists of five songs that are new not in the sense of being recent creations; it’s obvious from the start that, despite Sony’s deceptive promotion, the title track is a relic from the Dangerous era; but in the sense that they’ve never been released. They’re new to us, in other words, and, with the exception of the aforementioned title track, they sound awesome. Dare I say, with no hesitation, that three of the five; Morphine, Ghosts and Is It Scary; rank among Michael Jackson’s very best. He sounds irritated, even manic, on these songs; the kid who once sang ABC is now screaming drugs, sex and murder; but the rhythms are riveting. The melodies? Magical.

In The Mix, which remixes selections from the History album for both club and radio play, is a lot less interesting. There are standouts. At least one of these new mixes, namely the Classic Frankie Knuckles rendition of You Are Not Alone, might even be better than the original. My favorite part is the singing we couldn’t hear because it faded-out on the original. “Got to stop living alone,” Michael repeats over organs and joyous synth sounds, but on the whole, this set, much like his skin, pales in comparison to what came before it. David Morales ruins This Time Around. Hani’s Earth Song omits the entire choir section. They Don’t Care About Us, the best song on History, gets lost in the mix.

my rating : 4 of 5

1997

Seven Deadly Sins ( song lyrics ) … Natalie Merchant

Seven Deadly Sins ( song lyrics ) ... Natalie Merchant

Well, of all those seven deadly sins
I wore around my neck for him;
hunger, anger, lust and greed,
envy, pride and jealousy;
there was one, I guess, that was the worst of all…
that gave a little push, started the fall
from grace that I took so hard.
I took so long, so long and far.

But I just couldn’t spend me another night
in the cold cold bed of the butcher’s wife;
so afraid to fall asleep,
afraid to wake and afraid to dream.
No, I just couldn’t stay. I couldn’t wait it out
and bite my tongue for another hour;
one more endless day,
day after night and night after day.

Well, it’s been a two-year stint in No Man’s Land;
nobody here really gives a damn;
so why don’t we call it a draw
in the bloody war to end all wars?

In the bloody war.
In the bloody war.
In the bloody bloody war.
In the bloody bloody war.

Well, I’m far too quick with the poison pen.
Can’t believe I’m writing again…
after all these goddamned years.
And someday when the ghosts have all gone home,
far too late to be rattling bones,
then will you lay me down?

Lay me down. Oh, will you let it be?

Such a bloody war.
Such a bloody war.
Such a bloody bloody war.

Such a bloody war.
Such a bloody war.
Such a bloody bloody war.

2014

audio review : Blood On The Dance Floor ( song ) … Michael Jackson

The main flaw of this song has less to do with music than promotion. Epic Records, Michael Jackson’s label ever since Off The Wall, is trying to push this as a new single despite the fact that it’s (apparently) at least six years old. Some of the vocals may be new, I don’t know, but the music; the drumbeat of which is a replica of Remember The Time; isn’t. That’s a major marketing glitch that could’ve easily been fixed by simply releasing the song as an outtake from the Dangerous album. It’s also a bad look for producer Teddy Riley, considering the fact that it’s only taken six years for his New Jack Swing to sound old.

Other flaws, like lack of bass on a song that should be pounding the club and subpar vocal melodies during the verses, are relatively minor. Aesthetically this is a good song. The protagonist, a knife-wielding killer named Susie, is bad, at least in a moral sense, but the chorus sounds catchy enough, especially during the final peak when Jackson starts hyping it with his signature ad-libs. The song goes from good to great for about twenty seconds. “It was blood on the dance floor,” Jackson sings with masterful inflections, “It was blood on the dance floor.” The last two times he says it are particularly striking.

my rating : 4 of 5

1997

audio review : Blood On The Dance Floor [ History In The Mix ] ( album ) … Michael Jackson