1/7/10

New Releases for the week of 1/12/2010


There isn't that many new releases this week, but here you go.

The Hurt Locker: The making of honest action movies has become so rare that Kathryn Bigelow's magnificent The Hurt Locker was shown mostly in art cinemas rather than multiplexes. That's fine; the picture is a work of art. But it also delivers more kinetic excitement, more breath-bating suspense, more putting-you-right-there in the danger zone than all the brain-dead, visually incoherent wrecking derbies hogging mall screens. Partly it's a matter of subject. The movie focuses on an Explosive Ordnance Disposal team, the guys whose more or less daily job is to disarm the homemade bombs that have accounted for most U.S. casualties in Iraq. But even more, the film's extraordinary tension derives from the precision and intelligence of Bigelow's direction. She gets every sweaty detail and tactical nuance in the close-up confrontation of man and bomb, while keeping us alert to the volatile wraparound reality of an ineluctably foreign environment--hot streets and blank-walled buildings full of onlookers, some merely curious and some hostile, perhaps thumbing a cellphone that could become a trigger. This is exemplary moviemaking. You don't need CGI, just a human eye, and the imagination to realize that, say, the sight of dust and scale popped off a derelict car by an explosion half a block away delivers more shock value than a pixelated fireball.

Halloween 2: Rocker turned writer-director Rob Zombie returns to the horror field with this visually ambitious and aggressively brutal follow-up to his 2007 reinvention of John Carpenter’s seminal slasher Halloween. The 1981 sequel to the Carpenter film is completely ignored here (and for good reason) in favor of an extension of the central focus of Zombie’s Halloween, and all of his films, for that matter: the corruption at the heart of the nuclear family. Here, Laurie Strode (Scout Taylor Compton) is attempting to heal the psychic wounds from her previous encounter with brother Michael Myers (Tyler Mane) by bonding with Sheriff Brackett (Brad Dourif, a pleasure to watch as always) and his daughter Anne (Danielle Harris, herself a vet from the original run of Halloween sequels). Her previous surrogate father, Dr. Loomis (Malcolm McDowell) has forsaken his connection to Laurie by exploiting his connection to Michael with a tell-all book; meanwhile, Michael himself roams the lonely outskirts of Haddonfield, driven by visions of his mother (Sheri Moon Zombie) and a single-minded urge to bond with his sister at any cost.

Video Games

Army of Two: The 40th Day
: Army of Two: The 40th Day is a third-person shooter based in groundbreaking cooperative gameplay functionality. Sequel to the 2008 game of the same name, and featuring series heroes, Rios and Salem, in this new iteration players have a bigger playbook of features and a new arsenal of co-op moves that either player can perform at any time, opening up fresh strategies in the face of overwhelming odds. In addition, the game features advanced weapon customization and upgrade systems, as well as four explosive online multiplayer modes, each focused on unique cooperative play.

Music

Vampire Weekend- Contra
: Like the first album, Contra was produced by keyboardist Rostam Batmanglij and is the realization of a whole and unique musical vision that sees the band stretching out and adding new textures, instrumentation, and rhythms into their sound.Primarily recorded in New York with a springtime sojourn to Mexico, Contra feels altogether fresh, joyous, and like nothing else but is immediately recognizable as the sound of Vampire Weekend.


Ringo Starr- Y Not
: 2010 album from the former Beatle and Rock icon. For the first time in one of popular music's most enduring and illustrious careers, Ringo Starr has decided to take charge and produce himself. The result is perhaps the most personal and impressive album of this Rock legend's entire solo career. The joyous result finds Ringo leading a smaller core group of old and new friends including longtime pal and recent brother-in-law Joe Walsh, Dave Stewart and longtime Roundheads member Steve Dudas on guitar, Benmont Tench of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers on keyboards, Don Was and Mike Bradford on bass. The album also features special guests like Joss Stone, Ben Harper and Richard Marx on vocals, Ann Marie Calhoun on violin and Tina Sugandh on tabla and chanting. Starr's former bandmate and longstanding mate Paul McCartney, who adds a characteristically brilliant bass part to the inspiring 'Peace Dream' and even more notably provides his unmistakably fabulous vocals to 'Walk With You,' an exquisite new composition by Starr and Van Dyke Parks.

Ok Go- Of The Blue Colour Of The Sky: The mind-bending band that gave us what is largely considered the decade's most viewed music video (60M clicks- even the Simpsons parodied it), the treadmillmanned "Here It Goes Again" is back. Never content to rest on their laurels, OK GO is preparing to tread anything but familiar territory with their upcoming new album, Of The Blue Colour Of The Sky.The super creative Ok Go still has the DIY attitude and artistic vision that millions fell in love with. Innovative videos for "WTF?" and "This Too Shall Pass" Syncs for Ok Go have already debuted in Soundtracks, including NEW MOON, the second installment of The Twilight series, The 90210 soundtrack and "One Tree Hill".

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