Joe Vig's First Impressions - magical, musical thoughts: July 2004

Saturday, July 31, 2004

Great Links on the web!

Linking is fun!

Check this out:
http://blogcritics.org/

http://www.briansdriveintheater.com/

Al Aronowitz's BLACKLISTED JOURNAL
http://literaryocean.blogspot.com/archives/2002_09_01_literaryocean_archive.html

Film Critic Joe Viglione writes reviews forAl Aronowitz's BLACKLISTED JOURNAL http://www.bigmagic.com/pages/blackj/1jvig.html

Vig's movie reviews:
http://www.bigmagic.com/pages/blackj/column76o.html

Mark Snyder's http://www.pmpnetwork.com/

"Joe Viglione Movie Reviews" on Mark Snyder's page -
AI, X2, Terminator3: Rise of the Machines, The Mummy Returns, Star Trek Nemesis, Daredevil
www.pmpnetwork.com/ReviewsData/movies.htm

Also record reviews of Janis Joplin & The Cars
http://www.pmpnetwork.com/www.pmpnetwork.com/ReviewsData/Music.htm

Reviews on Rotten Tomatoes
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/author-2690/
Billy Zane Museum CQ Review
http://www.billyzanemuseum.com/Craft/Movies/CQ/CQreviews.html
Killer Movies - The Matrix Review by Joe Viglione
http://www.killermovies.com/reviews/the-matrix-review-9w7.html
A CIVIL ACTION Movie Review
http://www.us.imdb.com/Reviews/164/16416

If you want to see Joe Viglione's SOUNDTRACK reviews for AMG go here:
http://community-2.webtv.net/TheMadFaxer/rockjournalistjoe/

This blog is presented by http://www.joeviglione.com - a division of http://www.varulven.com

Link to compilation reviews:http://community.webtv.net/TheMadFaxer/compilationreviews
Here are 37 of his Soundtrack album reviews for the All Music Guide:

HERMAN'S HERMITS SOUNDTRACK TO THE FILM
"HOLD ON
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:ls9ks36ba3dg~T1

THE STRAWBERRY STATEMENT http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=CASS70308132334&sql=Aek4gtq2zbu4o

RIOT ON SUNSET STRIP http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=CASS70308140137&sql=At9c8b5m4tsqf

PSYCH-OUT Seeds, Strawberry Alarm Clock http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=CASS70308140137&sql=A1r6qoaeayijv

MEDICINE BALL CARAVAN w/ Alice Cooper http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=CASS70308140137&sql=A75j20r2ar48p

THE SAVAGE SEVEN with Cream http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=CASS70308140137&sql=Abxr9keft7q7m

CANDY with The Byrds, Steppenwolf http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=CASS70308140137&sql=Arh9hs38ba3dg

ZACHARIAH (1971) Doug Kershaw http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=CASS70308140137&sql=Akb63tr2rklkx

ISN'T SHE GREAT Soundtrack to a Bette Midler film without Bette singing on it! http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=CASS70308140137&sql=A1snsa9lgl23k

THE ROSE with Bette Midler http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=CASS70308140137&sql=Acj9hs34ba3vg

The Deep John Barry Original Soundtrack http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:lmfnzff7eh5k~T1

Jackpot Soundtrack featuring Bobby Hebb's SUNNY http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:j6rx288i05oa~T1

THE WAR A Kevin Costner/Elijah Wood film with Bobby Hebb's "Sunny" http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=CASS70308140137&sql=Axq5ibkh9kakq
please note that the tracking on AMG currently doesn't match this soundtrack to THE WAR - we're working to fix that!

ALL THIS AND WORLD WAR II (A great Beatles tribute album, actually) http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=CASS70308140137&sql=A5qfozfo8eh3k

THE MAMAS & THE PAPAS AT MONTEREY http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=CASS70308221101&sql=A1wjqoa8abijx

ENDLESS SUMMER/LAST OF THE SKI BUMSThe Sandals Complete Sandals 1964-1969: Wild as the Sea http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=CASS70308140137&sql=A69nyxd7b4olg

MICHEL LEGRANDWINDMILLS OF YOUR MIND
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781CDD4AAE7420ED9C2C45C7BD7CE71AFE5AFB86112F0456D3B82D6DA30B47D00BE49F81B0FA6AB679B0FD2EA45E43D0C0EA55F6D9632D5DF0&sql=10:5qk0ikpsbb39~T1

PETULA CLARK GOODBYE MR. CHIPS[Original Soundtrack] http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=CASS80309221305&sql=Atne097ijkr0t

TV Soundtrack MOVING WITH NANCY (Sinatra) http://music.barnesandnoble.com/search/product.asp?userid=2VAA1FTL5I&ean=90771605726

SPRING BREAK III / Speedzone Soundtrack http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=CASS70308252041&sql=Awj9ds38ya3zg

SPLASH "Spring Break" Grudge Records http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=MISS70309040846&sql=A9kq8g4sttv4z

DOGS IN SPACE http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=MISS70309040846&sql=Afmdayl18xpbb

Carnivore Soundtrack http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=MISS70306200948&sql=Agq63tr8tkl7x

David Bowe --- Ziggy Stardust Motion Picture http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=CASS80309181333&sql=Ay1ua6j3h71e0

Elephant's Memory Songs From Midnight Cowboy http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=CASS70309212305&sql=Awdu06j7h71r0

The Legend Of Billy Jack with Coven http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=MISS70308251732&sql=A0kmsa9wgu238

The Glitterhouse (featuring songs from the soundtrack to the film "Barbarella") http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=CASS70310030128&sql=A8u65mpsk9f2o

Badfinger on The Magic Christian Soundtrack: Carry On Till Tomorrow (flip of Come & Get It) http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=MISS70310021410&sql=X4221602

Flash Fearless Vs. the Zorg Women, Pts. 5 & 6 With Alice Cooper
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=SEARCH&sql=Ayqfjzfhheh8k

Steelyard Blues Soundtrack produced by Nick Gravenites
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781CDD4AAE7420EDBC0C65E79D5CC73AFE7ADBA6310F0476F3982D6DA30B47D00BE49F81B9E57DAB7BAFFF2AE85B0ED9C8EA5CFFD9764C40&sql=10:bkyvad4kt8wj~T1

Janis Joplin (Film Soundtrack)
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:qku36j5h71e0~T1

Janis Joplin at Woodstock
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:neom963ohep8~T1

Soundtrack Recordings from the Film Jimi Hendrix
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:4zrc28ol053a~T1

Experience: Original Soundtrack
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:7sp1z88aoyv5~T1

More Experience: Vol.2 of Original Soundtrack
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:zad3vwrva9yk~T1

Jimi Hendrix Live At Royal Albert Hall (The same music as on Experience & More Experience)http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:evae4j276wae~T1

Jimi Hendrix Live at the Isle Of Wight
http://www.allmovie.com/cg/avg.dll?p=avg&sql=1:26184~C

Blue Wild Angel
http://www.allmovie.com/cg/avg.dll?p=avg&sql=1:276129~C

BLUE WILD ANGEL: Jimi Hendrix Live At The Isle Of Wight Blue Wild Angel:
Jimi Hendrix Live at The Isle Of Wight is a 102 minute documentary by Academy Award winner Murray Lerner which features a crystal clear updated sound mix by engineer/record producer Eddie Kramer and other goodies separating this version from the 56 minute 1970 release. Videotaped documentary footage recorded three decades after the original film was shot adds insight. There are interviews with Kramer, bassist {$Billy Cox}, drummer Mitch Mitchell, Jim Marron - president of Electric Lady Studios, Hendrix tour manager Gerry Stickles, along with director Lerner himself and full length versions of the included songs from the legendary festival. As audio fragments of this concert became commercially available through the years including three tracks on Columbia Records The First Great Rock Festivals Of The Seventies and four other titles on Polydor's Jimi Hendrix / Isle Of Wight lp, different perceptions of one of Jimi's final concerts reached the public consciousness. At nearly double the 54 minute length of the Rhino Home Video} from 1970 entitled Jimi Hendrix: Live At The Isle of Wight, the result is simply breathtaking with Jimi Hendrix - the rock star performing in all his glory as his sun was about to set. Lerner calls this "a labor of love which took a long time to finish" and he credits the Experience Hendrix company with helping obtain the backing to complete the project. Filmed between approximately 2 AM and 4 AM on August 31, 1970, it is so dark that the 600,000 or so people in the audience hardly affect what you see on the screen. The director said the film is "deliberately claustrophobic" realizing that "Jimi was the key thing to photograph" stating that they stuck to Hendrix "very intensely". Billy Cox's brilliant bass work can be heard cleanly as both he and drummer Mitch Mitchell creat a platform on which genius unfolds. Jimi's versatility is in evidence, he clearly separated making a record from performing on stage. Purple Haze explodes in a way that would never have captured AM radio airplay, and is a stark contrast to the blues of "Red House" which, on film, has lots of interesting shots of Jimi's hand playing against the light while his facial expression is of a man lost in thought while in the throes of a wild solo. The guitarist here is a master technician, as is Murray Lerner who captures this modern day Beethoven with equal brilliance. The contrast of "Red House's" subtleties to Hendrix turning up his Marshall stacks and giving the people what they want -he psychedelic blasts of "Foxy Lady" - is more proof of how the singer/performer utilized all aspects of the stage - combining the volume and feedback with his clothing, hair, body movements, foot on the wah wah pedal, over amplification, all tools of this part of his trade. The build up with photography of the landscape before the main event and daytime glimpes of the crowd (along with Billy Cox's memories of how loud they were) combine to make this a respectful and precise look at a special moment in music history. Murray Lerner feels the 20 minute version of "Machine Gun" here "makes a big difference. It's much more powerful" (than the previous seven minute edit they had in release). The DVD has different camera angles for some of the songs included in the theatrical version, and will also include a bonus rare live performance of "Dolly Dagger". Joe Viglione for more Hendrix see

http://community.webtv.net/pubmac/JimiHendrix

The Manchurian Candidate 3:05 AM 7/31/04

leaving the cinema at 2:47 p.m. with the Blue Moon so big and close to the earth, the vacant parking lot was more eerie than usual - the filmmakers did their job - that shadowy paranoia
a good conspiracy flick generates. You are in the conspiracy film - eyes are everywhere watching you. It's a hot summer night, driving up to the red light which quickly turns green,
are the laws that keep us safe, the stop light - for instance - are they actually triggers that do something other than let us stop and go, stop and go ???

As a film this was much more mature than Conspiracy Theory(1997), the somewhat amusing Mel Gibson / Julia Roberts improbable romance. More like Erin Brokovich (2000) meets Fahrenheit 911. Political movies galore. But Liev Schreiber - in multiple films/tv specials heard more than seen as a voice-over expert - ( though he was in SCREAM, SCREAM 2 and SPHERE) is a handsome actor with little sex appeal here. His robotic performance is the embodiment of pulling the soul out of a human being - kind of like Mark Famiglietti going A.I. when T-X Kristanna Loken turns into him and gives slow, methodical answers to the Feds in TERMINATOR 3. (To digress, check out this cool Terminator 3 interview with Famiglietti

http://www.thearnoldfans.com/news/archives/2003/september/591.htm )

It's hard to call this wonderfully filmed epic "escapism" as the parallels with a dumbfounded George W. Bush in his starring role (Fahrenheit 911) just sitting there while planes were penetrating the World Trade Center just can't escape the consciousness of any logical person viewing this. Dean Stockwell gets the "Dick Cheney is Halliburton" award for his corporate shenanigans role and there are cool near-cameo appearances by Roger Corman , Robyn Hitchcock (who was directed by Jonathan Demme in STOREFRONT HITCHCOCK in 1997, so nice that he remembers), even a "Tom Chapin" - most likely the late Harry Chapin's brother. Two of the three producers are daughters of the original film's star, Frank Sinatra, those being Nancy Sinatra and Tina Sinatra. As stated, there are wonderful images created by the camera, an angle shot of the telephone when Vice Presidential nominee Raymond Shaw ( Liev Schreiber ) knows it is his ever-present stalker ....no, not Bennett Marco ( Denzel Washington ), but his Mommy Dearest, Meryl Streep. Streep comes off like a malicious doppelganger of Laura Linney's victim in Clint Eastwood's 1997 flick ABSOLUTE POWER. She has the same exact laugh as Linney - straight out of Thespian Cliches 101. And if Meryl over acts in some parts of the film, she's so much fun in the others we just let it slide. Washington is all business as the troubled soldier, though it is a stretch to think he could actually get that close to a Vice Presidential candidate, no matter what their Kuwait camaraderie. There are so many people
keeping an eye on Denzel that probability goes out the window. The once innovative but now
cliche concept of turning soldiers into killing machines seems a lot more likely than the holes in the plot. But the film moves at a very good pace and is more of a statement for the times than it is an evening's entertainment. Maybe it will turn into entertainment a decade from now, maybe it will pale next to Sinatra's original, and quite possibly it could be a companion piece to the Frankenheimer flick, conspiratorial bookends.

With rumors (oh, so sorry, "theories") of Halliburton harvesting organs from soldiers and Iraqis to sell to countries with socialized medicine (each organ worth 10K or thereabouts), a dead soldier is worth more than the oil. This movie makes you think that maybe Halliburton itself is blowing up the pipeline, beheading soldiers and civilians, putting Bush into office in order to wreak havoc and pull in the greenbacks. It's a lot more probable than The Manchurian Candidate script.

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Boy am I pissed I didn't do the John Frankenheimer interview when I had the opportunity during the promotion of 2000s "Reindeer Games". This new film is a nice tip of the cap to his memory. It gets an A-.

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When rambling on (or doing research) for these B-Logs sometimes interesting urls are discovered - like this one: http://www.utoronto.ca/religion/synopsis/syn-ini.htm

If you don't want to read it, don't fret. I want it - it's there for ME! But I like to share!!

Friday, July 30, 2004

I Robot

A.I. Robot

Director Alex Proyas may have unsuccessfully scooped The Wachowski Brothers with his Dark City from 1998, but he takes many elements from their 1999 classic that borrowed from him - The Matrix - and zaps them into I ROBOT, a film which - like a flicker ring - can turn into Spiderman at a glance (Robots en masse climbing up the skyscraper's side ), The Wild Wild West (enough with Will Smith already, like Men In Black II wasn't overkill - not to mention Independence Day), A.I., with bits of Barry Levinson's "Disclosure" and a little of the police intrigue of 1999s "The Thirteenth Floor". It is not a total wash-out. There is truly one of the all-time great haunted houses scenes in this Godzilla of artificial intelligence films. I say Godzilla because it is a bit cumbersome - the icy sets and...Will Smith again. Though his acting isn't bad, his presence throws things off. We're supposed to get to know so many people - Will Smith's grandma, Adrian Ricard, Star Trek Next Generation refugee James Cromwell as Dr. Alfred Lansing in one of the most peristence-of-vision cameo appearances in history. Too bad Star Trek didn't get the original Zefram Cochrane for 1996's FIRST CONTACT - Glenn Corbett- but he died in 1993 and
once again a character actor making too many appearances, Cromwell, is used by the movie companies to substitute for character development. How many characters can audiences absorb every Friday night? Maybe that's why Fahrenheit 911 did so well. We know all the hateful people involved and love it when Michael Moore gets in his ice cream truck and ridicules them.
Of course my biggest complaint with Moore is not using Alvin Lee's "I'd Love To Change The World" in the film like he did in the trailer, and maybe he should've had Jonathan Richman's "Ice Cream Man" play while reading the Patriot Act. Maybe I ROBOT should have starred
George W. Bush as a short-circuited brain in a silver suit that goes amok and destroys everything in his sight - a bull in a china shop. Now Will Smith can get on his horse from The Wild Wild West and have a showdown with Bush. If Michael Moore had co-directed I Robot
with Proyas it would have been a film for the ages rather than something to do on a Friday night the week after Spiderman 2 tore up the record books.

Joe Vig's First Impressions, 12:23 AM July 31, 2004, a week after I saw the flick!