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Awix (3310 KP) rated Robocop (1987) in Movies

Feb 12, 2018  
Robocop  (1987)
Robocop (1987)
1987 | Action, Sci-Fi
Murphy's Law
Heavy metal action satire from Dutch director Paul Verhoeven that established him as one of the world's leading SF directors. The story is functional, if hardly original - dedicated cop is shot to pieces by bad guys, rebuilt as an armoured cyborg by heartless corporation, struggles to reclaim his humanity - but what makes it special is Verhoeven's ability to turn the movie on a dime, switching the mood from black comedy to sincere drama in a moment.

The setting is futuristic, but few films capture the look and feel of the 80s quite as effortlessly as Robocop. There are a few wobbles in the plotting and some uninspired supporting performances, but this is directed with heart and intelligence. At least as good as The Terminator or Aliens; would probably be much better remembered if any of the sequels had been any good.
  
The Spine of Night (2021)
The Spine of Night (2021)
2021 | Animation, Fantasy, Horror
I don't really know enough about rotoscoping or the much loved Heavy Metal and Fire and Ice to make any comparisons, but what I can stay is that I initially found the animation of The Spine of Night really quite jarring. The wonderful painted-like backgrounds felt at odds with the harsh character designs, a point that was further driven when the hyper violence kicked in. However, by the halfway point I was utterly hypnotised by what was unfolding.
The expressions and emotions of these characters come across quite realistic in an oddly surreal way, wrapped up in an epic fantasy narrative that spans centuries, performed by an impressive voice cast.
The Spine of Night surely isn't for everyone, but if you have even a passing interest in animation and don't mind gore, then you'll probably get a kick out of it.
  
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Rob Halford recommended Queen II by Queen in Music (curated)

 
Queen II by Queen
Queen II by Queen
1974 | Pop
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"When I think about why I love Queen my head just fills with every single Queen song that I know by heart. It's just like a box of Quality Street. Everything is amazing. The reason that I've chosen the second album is because the song 'Ogre Battle' is on there, which is one of my favourite tracks. It's rare that you struggle to label a band. If you're a heavy metal band you're meant to look and sound like a heavy metal band but you can't really call Queen anything. They could be a pop band one day or the band that wrote 'Bicycle Race' the next and a full-blown metal band the next. In terms of the depth of the musical landscape that they covered, it was very similar to some extent to the Beatles. I mean 'Helter Skelter' was a pretty heavy track, and 'Yellow Submarine' really wasn't. I think Queen have a lot of similar ingredients. Everybody was writing the songs as well, so Freddie was writing differently to John Deacon, and then John was writing differently to Roger [Taylor, drummer]. They were all accepting each other though, and nobody was sat there saying that they couldn't do something because it didn't sound like Queen. If it was a good song they'd record it, and this album is nothing but good songs. It's a style that we've tried to adopt into Judas Priest. A good song is a good song at the end of the day, and there's no point in wasting time arguing about whether Priest are supposed to sound like the British Steel record or the Painkiller record or whatever. I felt such a sense of loss when Freddie died, but he fucking loved his life. He partied like a maniac. I've lost a lot of friends to AIDS and it's such a terrible thing to have to suffer through. Such a cruel condition to be taken by. From what I've seen and heard there's a horrible sense of loss in those early days. There was a lot of rejection and almost pariah-like status heaped upon you by people. And it's still around today, which is so sad and unfair. It's interesting though, because I don't know if Freddie would still have been doing what he did now. Would he still be going out on the road with Brian and Roger, who, by the way, I love? Especially Adam [Lambert]. But Freddie would have been 70-something I think, and I get a feeling that at some point, he would have just said, "I've had enough now darling." We lost him, but he left behind such an incredible legacy and canon of work. I listen to Queen almost every day still."

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