The band of the week this time is SHRINEBUILDER!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MOvk-dNLRY

This is one of the best super groups around. It is made up of members from The Melvins, and Neurosis among others. It is a great mix of doom, and stoner metal. Their debut album came out this year and i think it is one my favorites. 2009 has really been a great year for music. Amazing way to end the decade.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1234548/

Wow this film had such potential. A great cast, and an intriguing plot with lots of places to go. Problem is the film really doesn't go anywhere. It starts off vaguely well, who doesn't like slapstick humor? It goes downhill pretty fast though. I did love the cast though, Ewan Mcgregor, George Clooney, Jeff Bridges, and Kevin Spacey are all great in their own ways. They add great character and life to a lifeless film. The first problem is the plot. It is set up pretty early on and we get a good introduction to the 2 main characters. From there though they wander into the desert, Clooney displays some powers, and they get kidnapped and various other situations occur. Most of the interesting parts of the film are told in the form of flashbacks. When the film can't figure out where to go with it's plot it throws in a flashback to explain why we should give a crap. In between the flashbacks the characters wander a bit more, get lost in the desert and the film tries to make these more watchable by making them funny. I really mean try, this film really wants to be funny. Not in a clever way, this is not an intelligent political satire or a dark comedy. This would be fine if the funny parts of the movie were funny in the slightest. Most of them fall flat or make another jedi joke that made me chuckle at first since Ewan Mcgregor was in the star wars prequels. Problem is the film uses that running joke and tries to convince itself that it is funny or worth repeating throughout the film. Running jokes are tough to do, they either seem too repetitive or are used too sparingly to be called running jokes. Though I did like the scene where Clooney accidently hits a guy with his truck, hey that was a running joke because the guy was running and it was made into a joke! Get it? Oh man I am so funny I spray blood from every orifice.

That is pretty much what the film does with it's comedy. Heck the Star wars joke was made in the first 20 minutes of the film in the form of narraration, but the word jedi was never used. That was kinda clever, but then it gets used over and over again as if the film thinks we are too stupid to get it. Aside from my annoyance with that joke the humor can be funny. The truck part I mentioned earlier was chuckle worthy, and some of the hippie military parts where Jeff Bridges plays a parody of himself are kinda funny. Other than that though the film falls pretty flat. The actors try to make it better, and they are all good but the film itself isn't good enough. It isn't clever enough to be a satire and too silly to be much more than an absurd and occasionally funny anti war film. It also tries to have a message, which actually works pretty well since the LSD scene is not as far fetched as it seems. The government did indeed do experiments that bordered on insane, some also used LSD. This film could have run with that angle. Political satire is always good when done well. All the characters had potential for the film to be good. But overall I don't recommend it. The backstory may be entertaining and the cast solid, but the rest is just mindless and silly wandering in the desert. Not much interesting really happens. The message may be good and the backstory around it interesting enough, but the film just isn't consistant enough. Shame too, I was really hoping this would be good. It isn't bad though, don't think I hate everything about it. I just think it could have been much more.

Overall I give it a 6 out of 10.

The film of the week this time is THE RULING CLASS.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069198/

This is one of the best British films ever. It is a hilarious and dark political satire with Peter O'toole, who has never been better. I highly recommend this to fans of Dr. Strangelover, or In the loop.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0887912/

Katherine Bigelow is an interesting director. She seems to have an understanding of how men act that not many female directors have. I hope that doesn't sound sexist, but its the same with male directors. Not many male directors can create a convincing female character who isn't an archetype in some way. While the Hurt Locker isn't as convincing in how it develops its characters as Jarhead, it is still very good in many ways. First is tension, this film has some of the most tension filled scenes I have watched in ages. There is a sniper scene out in a desert that is one of my favorite scenes of the year. The use of music is minimal and when it is used it is mostly in the background. Jeremy Renner is fantastic in this film, he is a sort of modern day iraq war version of Martin Riggs. He is reckless and takes many risks in his job as a bomb tech expert. The other actors are all good with Ralph Fiennes, and Guy Pearce making cameos for some reason. The way the film is structured is very loose, almost to a fault. It is much faster paced than Jarhead, yet it is still a character study. We watch as James risks his life to defuse bombs. He lives for the danger and the rush of his life. He almost seems like he is emotionally distant from the people around him. When his life is inches from being taken from his constantly I can understand why he seems distant to many. He dedicates himself to his job and while he tries his best to help those around him it is easy to see that he tries not to get too emotionally attached to his friends. The only kind of friendship he develops is with a small boy Beckham who sells DVDs on the army base. He even risks his own life to punish those he thinks may have harmed the boy. Even his apparent friendship with his comrades seems distant, especially with Sgt. Sanborn who he seems to have a love hate friendship with.

He collects bomb parts because he finds the idea of being close to something that almost killed him interesting, and listens to loud music in his spare time as if he wants to shut out the world around him. The loose narrative in this film works, but it doesn't get me as involved in the film as it could have.I understood James, but I didn't really feel like I was getting involved in the story. This could be the point though, for us to feel as emotionally detached to these people as James seems to be. Problem is that doesn't really work a well as it could have. Most of the characters other than James are pretty underdeveloped so when they are in danger the drama was not as emotionally involving as it could have been. These men risk their lives every day in their job and they can't predict what will happen, and this may explain the film's loose structure. There really isn't much of a story that could be told and still be kept mostly realistic. I don't know how accurate this film is, but as a war film it is one of the better ones I have seen in a while. I loved watching James develop as a character, but the part with the boy and what he does later on felt a bit forced. I understood the poitn of it but it almost felt thrown in just to show that James can feel emotional when it comes to people. It didn't have much of an impact on me, especially since his friendship with the boy seemed to brief to be that interesting. Still though I highly recommend this film if you want to see a terrific iraq war film.

Overall I give it an 8.5 out of 10.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0929632/

In many ways Precious is quite an achievement. Gabourey Sidibe was fantastic as precious. Her performance is the best debut this year next to Sharlto copley. The story is one of the most depressing I have seen in a while. The film shows so many terrible things happening to Precious that I almost became numb to it. Lets get the bad stuff out of the way first. Lee Daniels is not a good director. The camera movements in this film are very random. He does close ups for no apparent reason, shaky cam, then back to still and a few talking pictures for the hell of it. It seems like he is trying to develop his own unique look but so far has failed. The talking pictures scene especially was unneeded. We don't have to have a film tell us what we already know, or give us random infomation that is not important. There are also random fantasy scenes when Precious thinks about what she wants to be or what she would rather be doing. I understand why they were put in, but they appear to be filler rather than important scenes. They take up way too much time and end up being cheesy and cliche rather than emotional. This isn't so bad, but Lenny Kravitz was a very odd choice. He plays a doctor who is only in a few scenes. his character isn't pointless, well it borders on it, but having Lenny Kravitz play a doctor seems like a strange casting choice. He isn't bad, but he isn't good either and his part could have been cut without losing much. Now lets get to the good stuff, the delicious sauce that covers an average steak of a film. Mo'nique was fantastic. I can't remember the last time I felt so repulsed yet fascinated by a film character.

She has a great ability to appear kind and sweet, then turn and do something insane the next. Her character does awful things, and her reason for doing them is disturbing but it brings us closer to the film's world and her twisted mind. Mariah Carey is in the film too, and she is tolerable but nothing special. This was a tough one to rate. On one hand the acting is mostly fantastic, but on the other the story isn't. It is in no way bad but you can pretty much predict what will happen. Once again though the directing does drag the film down a bit. There is a rape scene where it shows precious being raped by her dad, and then the film cuts to an egg frying. Golly I wonder what that means. Things like that combined with the other poor amateur directing I mentioned make me wish the film was directed by someone who knew how to use a camera. What I did love about this film is how it doesn't critisize anyone. It just shows what they do and why. You may not like what the characters do, but their lives are shown in a non biased way that I liked. The classroom scenes where Precious is shown fitting in somewhere for the first time in her life are mostly pretty delightful and heartwarming. The people in her class may be a bit annoying at times, but seeing her interact with people is a joy. Overall I would recommend this film despite it's bad direction. It may not change your life like the critics say it will, but it is still worth watching. I hope Gabourey sidibe gets some awards for this, she is magical in this film. The beauty of her personality and how she struggles are the best part of the film. It is not Oscar bait as some have said, and while it is quite brutal and depressing at times it is not one to ignore.

Overall I give it an 7 out of 10.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1186367/

Ninja Assassin is a movie about ninjas. I hope that didn't spoil anything, but I just wanted to get that out of the way. This movie has lots of ninjas. Some have swords, and some have chain things with blades on the end. This movie has some great and ridiculous fight scenes with lots of terrible looking CGI blood. Not cool terrible, but just terrible. When it went on the walls it was fine but the scenes of ninjas being sliced with CGI blood everywhere looked really bad a lot of the time. Aside from the fight scenes everything else is pretty bad. There is some backstory that sets up who Raizu is, but it is very generic and predictable. Also people talk about hearts a lot, which was some of the worst dialogue in the film. Hearts are brought up several times throughtout and each time it gets cheesier and cheesier. The romance was poorly written, and the acting was even worse. I don't expect a huge backstory, but if a movie wants to spend time showing us why a character is who he is it should at least be acted well. Everybody except Naomi Harris was mediocre at best. Riazo especially was one of the worst acted and generic movie characters I have seen this year. He is good at looking cool, but when he starts trying to act he is really bad. The actors didn't really have much to work with though, the film is not very well written and whenether the story gets interesting they throw in another fight scene. The fight scenes were all good, but after a while they started to get monotonous. There was no atmosphere or tension between them since I could predict what would happen in all of them.

The same director made V For Vendetta, which held off on it's fight scenes until the end and there was great build up, acting, and story that made me really excited to see the fight scene. That is what makes Ninja Assassin not work as well. The fight scenes are all done very well but they just got dull after a while. The film sets up some cool backstory, but it forgets about it when all the fight scenes happen. None of the characters are interesting enough to care about and after a while I just started waiting for the fights to happen since everything else was not very interesting. The film has an interesting concept, but overall it is a dissapointment. If you want to see some good ninja fight scenes then I recommend this. As long as you don't care about good acting, story, or characters then you will probably enjoy that. If you want some substance to you're action films like V for Vendetta then you probably won't like this. For what it's worth though I still kinda liked this. It had moments that were fun to watch, but like the film 9 it ruins it's potential it sets up with dull characters and monotonous fight scenes. Unlike 9 though it doesn't even have much visually or interesting themes to make it better. But hey it has ninjas, and they fight a lot. What else do you really need in a film called Ninja Assassin?

Overall I give it a 5 out of 10.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1103275/

It is odd seeing Joaquin Phoenix in this role and thinking what an odd turn his career has taken. There is even a scene in this film where he tries to rap, which was a great unintentional joke:P This is one of the best romance films I have seen in a while. It doesn't rely on visulal gimmick like some indie romance films. This is just a straight forward love triangle story. Phoenix is fantastic in this, so is Gwyneth Paltrow. Vanessa Shaw also plays her role well though she isn't given much to work with. This is a very depressing story about a man who tried to commit suicide after his fiance left him. Phoenix's character is pretty ambiguous throughout the film, he seems almost bipolar and cold toward people, but then he meets the girl who moves in next door who is equally ambiguous. We know Phoenix has a genetic disorder where if he has kids with his ex fiance they will not live long and that is why she left him, and he takes pills. Again we are not really sure why. Paltrow is shown as having a loud father who visits her sometimes, and is having a relationship with a married man. At this point most films would show the married man as being a jerk, but here he is shown as being kind and caring. He has a family, but he is concerned about Paltrow. He seems to know that she likes Phoenix, but all he says is "Keep an eye on her, I think she might be using again." Using what? We are never told, and really it doesn't matter. This is where the film sets itself apart from the typical romance. All the characters here feel like real people, while most romance films would have at least one archetype. This is not a Matthew Mcconaughey cheese fest, this is love at it's most savage and brutal.Don't expect things to turn out how you expect. This is a remake of the 50's film White Nights, but I think this is just as good if not better. Not only do you get a feel for the characters and their situations, but you understand why they are who ever despite how vague the film is when it comes to explanations. This film does not baby you, there are not definite reasons for some of the characters actions and the ending is left open in a way that may frustrate or confuse some people. There are tons of romance films around, some that try and mix humor, with emotional drama and gimmicky visuals and a random dance scene like 500 days of summer. They have their place and they are good in their own ways. This is very different though, there are no visual gimmicks.

No hip soundtrack that will appeal to the youth market, the soundtrack is minimal. What this is though is one of the more heartfelt and passionate romance films. Few films can show the passion of love and how desperate some of us can get when we want someone we can't have. I respect Phoenix for this role, it is one of his best and most powerful. If you want to watch a great romance film without all the gimmicks that indie films have made popular then I highly recommend this. It doesn't do anything new really with it's story, but few films this decade show the amazing and heartwrenching power of love like this one. How it can tear apart your soul and step on your heart until you literally feel like dieing. How it can somehow make every problem in your life float away on the wind and seem insignificant compared to how you feel. Phoenix's character is in his 30's, and lives and works with his mum. In Paltrow's character he see's something different. He seems to love the girl his parents set him up with, but even that is left open to interpretation. She has the misfortune of loving Phoenix, and having a connection with his parents who want him to be happy, but also wouldn't mind the extra money their son's marrige to this daughter of a nearby business rival would bring. In Paltrow he see's a sense of freedom, and this is very apparent at the end of the film when she offers him a chance to be liberated from his life and he embraces it with a passion that lifts our spirits. Will he find the happiness he deserves in Paltrow or will he decide to stay with the easy choice he has been provided by his parents. He stays in a room in his parents apartment surrounded by past treasures, old posters, and a picture of the woman who left him. Few films are able to soothe your heart with sudden promises of hope. Then steal them away and kick you to death with a steel tipped boot like this one. Yet there is always a sense of the possibilities for the future, all is never lost in this film despite how sad it may seem. I look forward to when Phoenix comes back to acting, if he does that is. This film is a real gem.

Overall I give it a 8.5 out of 10.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0978762/

This has got to be one of the most beautiful yet depressing films I have seen in ages. I can't remember who it was exactly who told me about it here, but whoever it was I think you. This is a remarkable film. The story is wonderful yet sad at the same time. Max is an overweight man who doesn't understand humans, and Mary is a girl with no friends. The letters they send each other start out nice and funny, but soon become more and more bleak as their lives spiral downward in various charming ways. All done in glorious claymation of course. Phillip Seymour Hoffman was amazing, if you didn't know beforehand you would never guess that was his voice. Toni Collette, Eric Bana, and Barry Humphries are all great too. This film is very dark, almost to the point of it being hard to watch. Nothing in this film looks nice, everything is bleak and dark and depressing. Some parts are brighter than others but even those have a hint of darkness to them. This film really stayed consistant to it's story and themes. It felt emotional and poignant the whole time unlike Up for example, which was a good film but it's emotional parts at the start almost felt lost by the time the dogs started flying airplanes. While Mary and Max is very downbeat,

it has mamy moments that are some of the most touching I have ever seen in an animated film. This may look like a kid's film but it is very adult in many ways. It is fascinating to watch the characters in this film grow and mature. They actually feel like real people. All their emotions, all their success and failure is shown perfectly in claymation form. It is very hard to do adult animation well. For me some animation films that are more adult or try to be more mature usually have a point where they get a bit silly. This can work a lot of the time, like Up got silly near the end but it still worked pretty well. This film has an odd look to it. There are colorful parts, but much of the world is black and white with the occasional gray. This makes the emotional scenes in it much more bleak than if they were in a brighter enviroment. You get to watch both Mary, and Max go through their lives and send letters about themselves and what they are going through. In these letters they develop a connection. Both of them have never had friends before, so the letters they send are essential to them because they get a connection they have never felt before. I wouldn't say it is love, but it is important and touching whatever you call it. Their relationship is one of the most touching and beautiful I have seen in ages. They are both flawed in many ways, but their flaws bring them together. I highly recommned this film and I hope it wins best animated picture.

Overall I give it a 10 out of 10.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1130080/

Stephen Soderbergh is an interesting director. He can do really good films like Che, Bubble, and Traffic. But then he has moments like The Girlfriend experience, and Solaris that just seem odd. This is one of those times, though thankfully this is much better than both of those films. Matt Damon is fantastic as Mark Whitacre, which surprised me because the posters made him look like an idiot. This film is a satire of corporate greed, and for the most part it works well. Mark Whitacre becomes a spy for the FBI so he can find out what the company he works for is doing secretly. Many have said this film tries to hard to be funny, and while some of Matt Damon's inner monologues were a bit forced I still thought that the film was consistant with it's humor even if it wasn't that funny all the time. The plot of this film, while nothing new, was very entertaining. I loved watching Damon spy on the company he worked for and get himself deeper and deeper into their lies by adding his own to the mix. After a while the government focuses on him when it is found out he is doing many illegal things that I will not spoil here.

Damon's character creates so many lies in this film it is almost ridiculous. They make the situation get more and more out of control, which make the film increasingly entertaining. I didn't find it dull in the slightest though it did drag slightly. One of the problems with this film though is the music. It is one of the worst scores I have heard in years. Usually music scores are so dull they become part of the background which works best most of the time. This film though puts the music in your face. It is done by Marvin Hamlisch. It works sometimes, but it usually just annoys me and tries too hard to make the film seem more goofy.There are times when I wished all the music would be silent for a while. Tony Hale of Arrested Development fame plays a lawyer here, which was a bit odd at first since I remember him being Buster Bluth but he fit his role pretty well. I would recommend this film to anyone wanting an interesting and slightly funny corporate satire. It may try too hard with it's humor at times and the music may rape your ears for most of the film but I enjoyed it a lot. Matt Damon really surprised me in this. The story also can get a bit monotonous with all the lies going on, but I think that is the point. It gets to the point where it almost seems unrealistic and silly, but yet it is increasingly entertaining.

Overall I give it an 8.5 out of 10.

Sorry I missed the band of the week last week, I would post 2 bands this time but GS only lets me link twice in one post. So the band of the week this time is SHOLI!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4OyIFrF0l8

Sholi made their debut this year and I look forward to what they do later. Their music is a slightly psychadelic and poppy. Think of the super furry animals mixed with animal collective.