The band of the week this time is SCOTT WALKER!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuHfAqz3TFY

This guy has been around since the 60's and he is one of the few songwriters I would call amazing. He started out in the pop group The Walker brothers, but later moved on to make some weird experimental music in his solo career. This is from his most recent album The Drift which came out in 2006. I don't know about you but I find this music creepy as hell. He is one of the best and most influential songwriters in rock music history.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0780653/

This is a remake that I was really looking forward to. The original film is a classic, but I think a remake could have added a lot. The werewolf has been very underrused recently. Which is understandable because you can't really do much with werewolves. They are a bit crap overall and they don't have any of the emotional themes that vampires have. With werewolf movies you are either a human and boring or a werewolf who kills people. We all watch these fims to either see the slow agonizing process of a man becoming a beast, or just to see people get torn apart. Some werewolf movies have tried to add more emotion and complexity like Ginger snaps, and In the company of wolves. If you are seeing a movie called The Wolfman you pretty much know what to expect. If you want to see some good werewolf action then this film has moments, but a lot of it feels rushed. I heard rumors about this film being re cut and edited so a lot of scenes are missing. If that is true then it kinda makes sense because story and setting wise this film is very poorly made. Important events happen and the main characters accept them almost instantly. The characters also had some pretty cheesy dialogue which made some parts of the film much cheesier than intended. The character development is pretty much nonexistant so I never gave a crap when anything plot wise happened. Let's talk about the good parts though. The acting is mostly good, Anthony Hopkins is particular is great.The werewolf also looks very good since the legendary makeup artist Rick Baker created him. The werewolf attack scenes are all very well done and create a convincing sense of fear and dread that somebody is going to get killed in a very gruesome and painful way.

There was a CGI bear that looked pretty bad though. That was a very odd thing to put in the film. Also the big werewolf on werewolf fight at the end was really cheesy looking. The biggest problem is still the awful pacing of the film. You never really know when or where things take place. There are some important settings, but I never got a sense of where they were in relation to each other. There is also a poorly done dark family history drama that could have added a lot of emotion to the film, but that too is rushed and never gets very interesting. The film hints at some bad things that happened to Benicio del toro's character as a kid, but you are never really given enough reason to really care. Emily Blunt is pretty good as Gwen, but her romance with Del toro is just as rushed as everything else in the film. One moment they meet and the next they have fallen in love and this creates problems because he is the wolfman and he loves her but doesn't want to hurt her. It is all very melodramatic to the point where it almost becomes a parody of itself near the end. This film had tons of potential to make werwolves vaguely interesting again, but it fails for the most part. It has a nice tribute to An American Werewolf in London that I appreciated but overall it just feels like an empty soulless film. The action is good at times and the effects are fun to look at but other than that it is nothing special. With a better director who can handle dark themes like Terry Gilliam, or David Cronenberg it could have been great. Unfortunately this film turned out to be a campy melodramatic werewolf movie with some of the worst character development I have seen in a while. I do not recommend this to anyone unless you are desperate to see werewolves. All this has is some good action, and you can get that in other werewolf movies that actually know what plot and character development is. Personally I would rather sacrifice good action for well developed story and characters. This film just felt flat, dull, and lifeless.

Overalll I give it a 5 out of 10.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1190536/

Spoof movies are hard to do well. It seems to be a dieing genre in the past couple of years, but there are several that show it can still be done. This is one of them. A good spoof movie doesn't just make fun of a genre, it also needs to understand it. Hot Fuzz, and Shaun of the dead are good examples of this. They clearly have a love for action, and zombie movies and it shows. They understand why the genre is popular and they don't just do cheap jokes. Same with classics like Airplane, and Top Secret. Sure they are ridiculous and they ridicule the genres they spoof but there is an understand and love of the genre too. Black Dynamite spoofs Blaxpoitation movies like Truck Turner, and Shaft and it does it better than most. Some of you may remember a movie called Undercover Brother that to an extent spoofed blaxpoitation. However that movie sucked for the most part. This one could actually be mistaken for a 70's blaxpoitation film if you didn't know it was a spoof. What helps this is that it doesn't have any big hollywood stars. There is the occasional cameo but for the most part the actors are pretty unknown. Michael Jai white plays Black dynamite and he is fantastic. He plays his role with a great serious tone which makes his lines even funnier. He also knows kung fu, and speaks Vietnamese. This movie is ridiculous in the best possible way. There are amazing scenes that include boom mics appearing on purpose, a giant donut suit being used as a bullet shield, Abe Lincoln doing Kung Fu, and explosions.

The movie is about Black Dynamite trying to clean up the streets while discovering a horrible plot that threatens the world. He also finds out that someone is hooking orphans on drugs, which makes him take a stand and fight back. He does this by doing a lot of kung fu, shooting people, and seducing various random women. What makes this movie special is that it's jokes all hit the mark. Sometimes especially near the end the jokes can get a bit tiring but for the most part they are all funny. Most spoof movies try way too hard to throw in as many jokes as they can. The Hot Shots movies are an example. They are pretty funny but the jokes are way too quantity over quality. Black Dynamite just delivers in all ways. It has a perfect balance of ridiculous humor and satire.The plot does drag a bit and at times I forgot there was even a plot, but the jokes made me forget about that. No spoof movie has a good plot and this one is silly on purpose like all of them. What makes this film so much better than most spoof movies overall is it feels real. Most spoof movies feel the need to throw in random jokes that remind you that it is a spoof. While that is fine most of the time after a while it can get monotonous. Movies like Hot Shots don't know when to end a joke and they repeat it over and over again until it has lost any hint of humor. While the jokes in Black Dynamite are mostly based around a similar theme they don't get boring. All the characters are just as cheesy as you would want, the action is surprisingly well done, and it has some of the funniest lines I have seen in years. I think this has potential to be a future cult classic. While it may not have the wide appeal of Airplane since some jokes are very specific to the blaxpoitation genre, but if you like spoof movies then you cannot miss this. It's limited appeal may be it's only real fault. I liked all of the jokes but some were very limited to blaxpoitation movies. Shame it had such a limited theater release. It is even better than I'm Gonna Git you sucka, which is one of the only good movies the Wayans brothers have made. I highly recommend this film. If it wasn't for World's greatest dad, and In the loop this would be the best comedy of 2009 by far.

Overall I give it an 8 out of 10.

These are my overall favorite songs of the decade. This list will probably change a lot in my head, but this is it for now.

1. Porcupine tree- Arriving somewhere but not here

2. Green carnation- Light of day, day of darkness

3. Blur- Battery in your leg

4. Belle & Sebastian- Another sunny day

5. The Antlers- Wake

6. The Dear Hunter- The Oracles on the delphi express

7. Estradasphere- A corporate merger

8. Lupine howl- Carnival

9. Frost*- Milliontown

10. Amplifier- Airbourne

11. Shearwater- Rooks

12. Okkervil river- Okkervil river song

13. Pure reason revolution- Deus ex machina

14. Pulp- Wickerman

15. Magma- Emehntehtt-Re II

16. Big big train- The underfall yard

17. King crimson- Level 5

18. Mountain goats- Tallahassee

19. Day without dawn- The Deeper wells

20. Nick cave & the bad seeds- Hiding all away

21. Super furry animals- Receptacle for the respectable

22. The Twilight sad- Cold days from the birdhouse

23. Wild Beasts- All the king's men

24. Anthony and the Johnsons- Hope there's someone

25. Woods- September with pete

26. The XX- Crystalised

27. Julian cope- Psychedelic odin

28. Kasabian- Club foot

29. The Future kings of london- Time flies like an arrow

30. Sun kil moon- Carry me ohio

31. Menomena- Wet and rusting

32. Primal scream- Exterminator

33. BLK JKS- Banna Ba modimo

34. Death from above 1979- Romantic rights

35. Midnight juggernauts- Road to recovery

36. Elliot smith- Everything reminds me of her

37. The National- Mistaken for strangers

38. The Divine comedy- A lady of a certain age

39. Royksopp- Eple

40. Stars- Barricade

41. The Arcade fire- Intervention

42. Jim O'rourke- Good times

43. Jarvis cocker- I will kill again

44. Blackfield- End of the world

45. Fun- All the pretty girls

46. The Decemberists- O Valencia!

47. Mono- Ashes in the snow

48. Hercules and love affair- Blind

49. Maudlin of the well- Laboratories of the invisible world

50. Elbow- Newborn

The film of the week this time is IF....

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063850/

This is one of the British films ever. It is a shame that Martin Mcdonagh's career isn't doing so well these days, but back in his younger days he was in quite a few good films. If.... is a fantastic satirical and dark look at British schools at the time. It is a favorite of mine.

The band of the week this week is SOUL HOOLIGAN.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1h6W33aTIu8&feature=related

I just found out about these guys and damn I am quite impressed. Their sound is a cool mix of Hip hop, soul, garage rock, blues, and dub. Think of a more electronic Spearhead mixed with Gorillaz, Daft punk, and De la soul.

The film of the week this time is THE MOUSE THAT ROARED!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053084/

This is one of Peter Seller's early films. This came around the time of his radio comedy career on the show The Goons. Here he plays 3 roles perfectly in this fantastic satirical comedy about a small country that invades America.

The band of the week this time is LONELY LONDON LAD.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hV4JbsjxnfM

This band released their debut album in 2009. It is one of the best debuts albums of 2009, and it is a double album. They have a definite 60s psychedelic influence. If you like early Pink Floyd and the more psychedelic Beatles songs you will like this band.

Henry the 8th, I am, I am.

The film of the week this time is A SIMPLE PLAN!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120324/

This is one of Sam Raimi's best and most underappreciated films. Bill Paxton, and Billy Bob Thornton are great in this film that is based on a very good book. If you want to see an intense thriller with an interesting plot and characters I highly recommend this.