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    Occitanie by France

    Occitanie by France

    (0 Ratings) Rate It

    Album

    Savage pulsating drone-rock from France France is the trio of Jeremie Sauvage on electric bass,...

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BankofMarquis (1832 KP) rated Rampage (2018) in Movies

Apr 20, 2018  
Rampage (2018)
Rampage (2018)
2018 | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
7
7.4 (116 Ratings)
Movie Rating Watch
Action, CGI, THE ROCK (0 more)
Very thing plot. Malin Ackerman is not very good as the villain (0 more)
Pretty much what you'd expect - and it's fun
There are times when you go to a movie, you are going there to immerse yourself in a world that draws out strong emotions with stellar acting, writing and directing and Cinematography that takes your breath away.

And there are other times where all you want is to watch Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and a giant Gorilla fight a giant Wolf and a giant Alligator in downtown Chicago.

Guess which one RAMPAGE is?

Based on a video-game of the same name, RAMPAGE tells the tale of a primatologist who's "friend" (a gorilla) is infected with an experimental - and illegal - pathogen that turns him (and 2 other animals) into giant killing machines. It will take all the skills of this primatologist (did I mention that he is a former Navy Seal) to withstand the onslaught and find an antidote.

But, of course, with these kinds of films, the plot really doesn't matter. All that matters is that The Rock is playing the Pathologist and Naomi Harris plays a discredited genetic engineer. The two of them teams up with a mystery "agent" (played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan) to battle the bad guys - and the monsters.

But, of course, in these kinds of films, the characters don't really matter either. What REALLY matters in these kinds of films is the action and the CGI that is used to create these actions - and both of them are pretty good - at least, good enough.

Director Brad Peyton teams up again with The Rock (they were together for SAN ANDREAS and JOURNEY 2), so he knows not to linger too long on anything. He moves the plot (what there is of it) along smartly and focuses most of our attention on the action and only really stops for a joke or two - and they (for the most part) land just fine.

The Rock is, of course, THE ROCK in this film. He does "his thing" and he does it well. Jeffrey Dean Morgan basically plays the same character he plays on THE WALKING DEAD (but...he is a GOOD GUY here). Naomi Harris (still smelling fresh from her Oscar nominated turn in MOONLIGHT) clearly needs to pay for a house in Malibu by "slumming" it in this movie - I can see her conversation now...

"How much is that house in Malibu...?" (calls her Agent) "Hey...how much are they willing to pay me for the Giant Ape movie...?"

Malin Ackerman - never my favorite performer - is pretty one note as the main villain in the piece. She plays a Corporate Exec who wants to...wait for it...MONETIZE the giant animals!

But again, we are here to see The Rock and the giant Gorilla fighting the giant Wolf and Alligator - all the while destroying indentifiable landmarks in downtown Chicago.

And in that...this film succeeded...well enough.

Letter Grade B (it's probably a B- or C+, but I'm a sucker for these types of films).

7 (out of 10) stars and you and you can take that to the Bank(ofMarquis)
  
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Darren Fisher (2447 KP) rated Sandinista! by The Clash in Music

Dec 11, 2020 (Updated Jan 15, 2021)  
Sandinista! by The Clash
Sandinista! by The Clash
1980 | Rock
9
8.0 (2 Ratings)
Album Rating
'Music For People Who Work On For Oil Rigs'
At a time when only prog-rock groups released triple albums, The Clash went out on a limb, providing a multicultural mish-mash of musical styles. Ranging from dub reggae, funk, jazz, disco, rap and even gospel, this 36 track sprawling epic covered all the musical bases. Often compared as their equivalent of The Beatles 'White' album, Sandinista! finds The Clash at their most experimental. Featuring a vast range of guest artists from dub maestro Mikey Dread, Ellen Foley and various members of The 101ers, The Blockheads, Eddie & The Hot Rods, The Voidoids and Darts(!?!) this really is a melting pot of ideas and influences.
Sandinista! can be a tough call if you decide to listen to it from start to finish, clocking in at around the 2hr 20mins mark, but I would recommend doing this on the first listen. It sets a trippy, mesmerising, and (albeit) uneven journey of a group realising there is a much bigger world out there than just London.
One critic described the album as 'music for people who work on oil rigs'. I like that...

Album highlights:
The Magnificent Seven
Look Here
The Street Parade
  
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Moby recommended Architecture & Morality by Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark in Music (curated)

 
Architecture & Morality by Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark
Architecture & Morality by Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark
1981 | Pop
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"There are certain bands that are hard to talk about, OMD, Simple Minds, where their earlier records were just phenomenal, and later on they made records that were too commercial and not quite as strong as their earlier ones. The first OMD album, Dazzle Ships and Architecture & Morality were flawless. They were beautiful, experimental, inspiring records, then a few years on they were making music for John Hughes movies, and they were good at it and I'm glad that they had success with it, but it wasn't nearly as creatively inspiring as the first three records. Architecture & Morality, I mean it's not hard to overdo the hyperbole, but it's a perfect album, so cohesive, and every song perfectly speaks to the other song, the unapologetic emotional quality of it is really inspiring. Even the artwork by Peter Saville, everything about it is perfectly crafted. One of my very odd musical moments was years ago when I was at South By South West in Austin and OMD were doing a reunion show at a BBQ at three in the afternoon, and they asked me to play bass with them. I found myself playing bass with OMD on 'Enola Gay' at a BBQ at three in the afternoon in Texas. It was one of those moments where you told me that actually I'd just done way too much mescaline and I was currently lying on a bed somewhere and making up the whole thing, I'd believe you. It's a shame that a lot of people came to know of OMD through the last couple of records that were more commercial. It's like Simple Minds, the first five albums are amazing, and then they became a stadium rock band. Now you mention Simple Minds and people think about 'Alive And Kicking' and 'Don't You Forget About Me' which aren't terrible songs, but the earlier stuff was experimental and textural and weird. Maybe someone sees OMD on this list and immediately thinks of a John Hughes movie, maybe they'll be inspired to back and listen to Architecture & Morality."

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Vince Clarke recommended Hotel California by Eagles in Music (curated)

 
Hotel California by Eagles
Hotel California by Eagles
1976 | Rock
8.0 (4 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"I've never seen them live, but I've seen loads of footage of them performing live. 'Hotel California' is an incredible track, or at least I think so. It's like a best of American rock, or country rock or whatever you want to call it, it's the perfect example of that genre. It's got perfect harmonies, really good songs. I love watching them with their double necked guitars and shit like that, it's just really professional, really impressive, something that I could never do. It's an admiration thing. I got into The Eagles late, about 1990 or something. I started hearing them a lot on the radio, I'd known their songs but hadn't paid any attention to them in any detail. Then when I started listening to them properly, I thought, ""Yeah man, that's pretty damn cool"". Living in America it's been interesting to discover that there's a much bigger alternative scene here than I imagined there was. I live in Brooklyn and there's a big electronic scene here, lots of people doing experimental music. The whole thing started with electroclash really, I loved that [chuckles], it was so cheeky. Since I did that record [VCMG] with Martin Gore I've been listening to a lot of techno stuff, it's not one particular artist, but I'm on Beatport every day. It's quite a revelation, I was quite out of touch with electronic music, but now I'm finding loads of new stuff. I'm working on another collaboration record, with various DJs and mixers, it's quite a long project, but I thought that rather than work with an individual it'd be interesting to get different people, get different angles on the music. Hopefully when Martin comes off tour and has a bit of time we could do another record together, because I really enjoyed doing the last one."

Source