Lungs - Florence + the Machine

It's all Coup de Main's fault! I got dragged along to Laneways here in Auckland not really knowing much about who was on other than the odd bit of radio play and now I have a new addiction.

This new form of cocaine comes in the form of Laneways highlight Florence + the Machine. It was mindblowingly amazing. Some acts just have it live and Florence is one of them. It just went off.

Florence (born Florence Welch) is all kinds of fabulous. And yes I mean that in the campest possible way, more importantly as a compliment. She's got some of that 60's swagger and charm of a Dusty Springfield, an elegance and outrageousness that just oozes out of every pore and a voice that somehow seems it could simultaneously strip paint and be the Tim Tam straw in your hot chocolate.

With an easy-going charm she won over Auckland's rain-soaked audience and so, naturally, I acquired the album.

Lungs as an album is an excellent indicator of the passion they bring to the live performance, it's eclectic enough to contain plenty of harp and also some electronic flourishes and it's damned catchy.

Don't let the easy going start fool you - Dog Days Are Over is a full on belter that starts the album off with punch and it irresistibley sing-a-long-able.

I'm Not Calling You A Liar has the kind of sway I could see her singing while strutting down a street with 12 inch heels on, pausing briefly to sip delicately at a water fountain. Another highlight.

Kiss With A Fist is amazing. So. Much. Fun. With a heavy, fuzzy guitar and the full lyrics being "a kick in the teeth is good for some, a kiss with a fist is better than none" I could see why this wouldn't be everyones cup of tea, but personally this is the song I'm playing in my head as I dance around my apartment in my underwear.

Girl With One Eye is another song full of swagger and sway. A little bit of grit in the voice adds the attitude you can picture Florence bringing to any situation "I said hey girl with one eye, get your filthy fingers out of my pie."

I've just names four songs as highlights and that's just within the first six songs on the album. Other high points in the thirteen-track album include Drumming Song, Cosmic Love, My Boy Builds Coffins, Blinding and the sublime finale You've Got the Love.

What's the genre? Well that's easy, it's a sort of alternative-funk-soul-pop-rock-electronica feel with a splash of fabulocity.

This is my discovery of the year so far. (Yes... I know it came out last year, but I only added it to my collection recently so there!) :P

For a wee bit of a taste check this out:

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I'm giving this one 5 fabulous hair flicks

Valentine's Day

God I cannot stand Jamie Foxx. Or Taylor Swift. Or even Jessica Alba. And Jennifer Garner looks like she's constantly crying. What a sorry list of "actors". On the other hand, I adore Shirley MacLaine, Julia Roberts even Anne Hathaway I've realised tonight. And lord knows I'd love Taylor Lautner given half the chance.

Valentines Day banks on an amazing, sexy, A-List cast that's longer than my... own list of credentials. (you filthy minded perves) It relies on the fact that everyone will find one member of the cast that they like. Someone that we like enough to go to any movie at all, just to see them in it. Of course there is always the other side of that coin, which is that there are people in that cast we would also actively avoid seeing in films. It's all a bit of a balancing act really isn't it? Not too dissimilar to converting a monogamist to the true path.

Really, aside from the list of stars, there's nothing to Valentines day other than a few nice twists on the standard package. The plot doesn't exist and there's nothing to the cinematography. The soundtrack has some really great classics from the swing/jazz repertoire, but re-done with a modern twist and if I was being fair (which we all know I don't do often) then I would have to admit that I could see myself listening to the soundtrack again.

Would I recommend it? No. Condemn it? Probably not. It wouldn't be worth the effort.

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1 pair of underwear.

Crazy Heart

Some of you may have seen the Golden Globes and may be following the BAFTA and Oscar noms and wonder "how does Jeff Bridges, a man who starred in How To Lose Friends and Alienate People get nominated for film's highest honour?" Admittedly Jeff also played Jeffery 'The Dude' Lebowski, but is that enough to make up for roles in Stick It, K-PAX and a film called Lolly-Madonna XXX? (yeah... I don't know what the last one is either. Terrible title though!)

Crazy Heart is a story not uncommon on the big screen these days. A once wildly popular and successful musician has lost their way and their talent, but found the bottle, some oddly shaped dry leaves and one or two pills. Unexpectedly, they're offered a chance at redemption.

So, the story is a little samey.

Casting and performance? Well I have to say that Jeff does a good job. It's not the most amazing transformation I've ever witnessed on screen, but it's strong enough that with his body of work, the awards voters will probably recognise him for Best Actor in most cases.

Maggie Gyllenhaal is pretty good weaving her usual amount of charm and quirkiness into the role of a solo mother slash reporter who finds herself falling for our fallen musician.

[side note - when falling for someone who has or is fallen, does one have to crawl or can one stand upright until that point where they reach the first fallen person and then fall down to their level?]

Colin Farrell also does a fine job as the young musician who is flavour of the week and also Jeff's former protégé.

The thing that I was most intrigued about was the music. We have, after all, the story of a country and western artist who rules the charts and airwaves and after the Golden Globe win for best soundtrack, I hoped that the music would wow me.

T-Bone Burnett (the whitest man ever to call himself T-Bone) did a fairly sub-par job in my humble, if classically trained, opinion. The music failed to draw me in or move me in any way. I'm a big fan of acoustic guitar ballads but this just didn't do it for me lyrically or melodically.

All in all this is a fine, inoffensive film, but a bit of a let down I thought.

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I'll give it 3 thumbs up

The Second Test

Last week I had coffee with a friend of mine in Eden Terrace. She's a well known film reviewer and being two cynical wee peas in a pod, we both agreed that a film is good if it moves you. It can make you laugh, cry, fall in love, get lost in your own thoughts, anything really, but unless it pushes you emotionally to a place where you weren't, it didn't matter how technically brilliant it was.

A few rotations of the Earth later and I find myself at the Herald Theatre about to watch The Second Test; the moving story of New Zealand's cricket tour of South Africa in 1953 and their response in the face of the Tangiwai disaster.

I'd done some reading and was emotionally prepared. The story that made grown men cry. Ha! Not me. Clearly the people making these claims had never tangled with the likes of my rock solid emotional core. I'm an immigrant. A former employer. A prick. I'd not crack.

Turns out I hadn't read quite far enough as I laughed pretty solidly throughout most of the play. Most of it.

The play itself is raw and intimate, with both the humour and the emotional knock-out punch being delivered delicately by actor/writer Jonny Brugh. A portrait of Kiwi stoicism, strength and sensitivity, it's straightforward but effective and affecting.

Though a one-man show, actual footage from an 8mm camera carried on the 53' South African tour features throughout. That and some clever lighting helped make a relatively small scale production seem a lot larger.

This truly is a Kiwi production through and through. For those looking for a bit of patriotism in their theatre-going experience, this is a must see.

The Second Test is on at the Herald Theatre until February 27th.

So I didn't cry. But I could have.

Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief

By Odin's Hammer! This one, I have to admit, took me completely by surprise. Not one to turn down free movie tickets, I went along not really expecting much but Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief is actually really quite enjoyable!

Sure there are those out there who will not like it, but to me it was like a really good spin-off from the Harry Potter series.

What did I like about it? I could name a number of things I enjoyed, but at this cynical stage in my life, I think perhaps most of all I enjoyed the surprise of having been entertained by a film which hadn't promised a great deal in my mind. It's not just that it broke down my snarky expectations though. The film is fun, adventure filled, self-deprecating and had some fairly passable computer graphics - not ground breaking, but solid enough to enable the suspense of disbelief.

Pierce Brosnan aside, I found the cast strong and the performance of Logan Lerman (3:10 to Yuma - Great film. Worth owning) very good. There are also a number of fun cameos from Steve Coogan, Rosario Dawson, Sean Bean, Catherine Keener, Joe Pantoliano, Melina Kabana... Canada... Karaka... Kanakaredes and that third guy from Grey's Anatomy who no one thinks is McAnything.

Sometimes the Greek mythological references got a little tired, but overall I found it really interesting and a nice spin on your normal teen action/adventure/coming-of-age flick. I also got a slight sense of smug self-satisfaction from being able to name the gods before their characters were introduced and pick up on other references that were made. Take that mum! Totally justifies the years of Classical Studies and Latin I did in school. I ask you... what good would French or accounting have been in this movie?!

If I had watched this film a few years ago, I really think I could have gotten into it in a big way. Obviously as it stands I really can't become a fanatical supporter of it as I'm far too old and mature. TAG! You're it!!

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4 Stars

Toy Story 1 & 2 in 3D

Disney had a problem - they wanted to make some money. It was in the middle of a financial crisis and they wanted a bit more moolah to make sure the Cinderella Castle wasn't repossessed by a fleet of helicopters piloted by a crew of burly ex-cons inevitably called Bubba, T-Bone, Spike and Gerald.

Usually in this situation, a studio would rip out a sequel or two to supplement their release schedule of remakes, reinventions and re-imaginings, but they already had all of their franchises in production on a further instalment. The solution? Talk the VP of Pixar (John Lasseter) into reviving a property he himself had once directed - there would be a Toy Story 3!

This first problem having swiftly been dealt to, Disney now faced another; Shrek 4 was releasing at the same time!

Pixar and Disney HATE Shrek (and DreamWorks Animation) for winning the very first Oscar for best animated feature and now they had this release date problem. And it really is a problem for them - The Shrek films have made bucketloads more money at the box office than Toy Story and is also the more current franchise having released it's latest instalment in 2007, eight years after Toy Story 2. How would they get cinemas to play it in a crowded market and how would they beat out Shrek and claim the hearts and wallets of cinema-goers?

What they've done is very clever (and exactly what they should have) - they're releasing Toy Story 1 & 2 into the marketplace to help and re-build brand awareness. They couldn't release them as individual films - there simply wasn't room in the release schedules or time before they had to be on screen with number three - so they've packed them into one feature. One giant-arse feature. And as a further gimmick, they've updated them, retrospectively cutting them in 3D as the third will be.

So there's some history for you. The whys and wherefores. Now we come to the film itself. (or films depending on your perspective)

It was really nice to see Woody and Buzz up on the big screen again. They're great characters and stories that have really stood the test of time. What has not stood the test of time is the animation. With the advances in animation techniques and technology over the past 11-15 years, the original Toy Story films have been left for dust. The texturing, the movement, perspective, it's all looking a little tired to be frank.

Yes yes yes... I hear you. Of course it looks dated - it was always going to. You're right, but I was surprised at how sub-par it now looked. This was of course coupled with the 3D aspect of the film which was terrible. They have not done justice to the two films and the end result looks like they've spent next to nothing retrofitting the next dimension. Reds and blues are particularly garish but the whole thing left me disappointed.

This is one of the longer review pieces I've written for this site, but it is nothing compared to the length of the Toy Story double feature. They've done the smart thing and broken the films with a 10 minute intermission, but with the trivia that runs between them, it's still a damned long watch and I walked out three hours later exhausted! [I'm currently researching the validity of a claim that War and Peace was written, edited and hand-copied in a shorter space of time.]

My advice - if you want to watch the first two films to recapture the magic, do it on DVD - the 2D version will be so much more enjoyable!

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No rating on this one, loved the films, just not this version of them.