Epinions Recent Reviews for alan-smithee

Twisted, loud, funny, heavy, dark and inspired.

Mon, 2 Aug 2004 20:07:20 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author alan-smithee - Pigmy Love Circus is easily one of the best bands that more than likely most people have never heard of. PYC (as I'll refer to them from here on out) have actually been around since 1987. Based out of Southern California, they became something...

Rust in Peace version 2.0

Thu, 29 Jul 2004 18:09:41 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author alan-smithee - Megadeth has always seemed to exist in the shadow of Metallica, which is ironic as I've always considered Megadeth to be the far superior band. Megadeth guitarist/singer and leader Dave Mustaine was also a founding member of Metallica before being...

A great overview of a legendary musical career.

Tue, 27 Jan 2004 23:05:55 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author alan-smithee - James Brown is a musical legend. Almost everybody has been exposed to the soul/funk/R&B legend's timeless music either through actual songs or through the numerous times that he has been sampled by dance and rap artists. While it is well known that he...

Primus is finally back in a big way.

Fri, 9 Jan 2004 16:38:09 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author alan-smithee - Primus is a quirky power trio from the Bay Area in California that specializes in quirky bass intensive rock that has garnered them a large cult following and even some mainstream success. Animals Should Not Try to Act Like People is the newest...

Catchy, quirky and extremely funny.

Tue, 15 Jul 2003 23:06:47 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author alan-smithee - While browsing the used CD section in my town's local Wherehouse Music store, I stumbled across a band's name in the "R" section that made me laugh out loud. The band was called The Reach Around Rodeo Clowns and their CD was entitled Whip It Out...

What in the world was Paul Verhoeven thinking?!

Fri, 11 Jul 2003 18:40:27 GMT

rating: 1/5 by: Epinions Author alan-smithee - I've been a fan of director Paul Verhoeven for many years now. While he has often been criticized for using style over substance, I think that a lot of his films are done quite well. This is especially in regards to his Dutch films from the 70's and...

Les Claypool's 1994 side-project is great stuff.

Thu, 26 Jun 2003 17:28:56 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author alan-smithee - Sausage is actually the original lineup of Primus back in the mid/late 80's when they were still going by the name at one point of Primate. That lineup consisted of Les Claypool (bass/lead vocals), Todd Huth (guitar, vocals) and Jay Lane (drums). But som...

Not perfect, but a refreshing display of artistic eroticism with substance.

Mon, 28 Apr 2003 15:21:24 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author alan-smithee - Sex & Lucia is a fun, frisky and extremely erotic film that boasts some terrific (and very brave) performances. While the film's plot gets a little problematic as the film goes along, this latest offering from one of Spain's most interesting...

So stupid and goofy that it actually ends up being very funny.

Thu, 6 Feb 2003 01:42:00 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author alan-smithee - Even though this film wound up on a lot of people's "Worst of 2002" lists, I actually didn't think that it was nearly that bad. Actually, I found it to be very funny. But then again, I really like cheesy kung-fu films, which this is a parody of. What...

Much better than the first LTE album.

Tue, 4 Feb 2003 20:09:44 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author alan-smithee - Liquid Tension Experiment is an instrumental progressive rock super-group of sorts that consists of John Petrucci (guitar) and Mike Portnoy (drums) from Dream Theater, Jordan Rudess (keyboards) of Dixie Dregs & solo fame and the legendary Tony Levin...

Extremely erotic but also very shallow with virtually no plot.

Tue, 4 Feb 2003 00:57:50 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author alan-smithee - The Lover was a 1992 French production of a film based on a semi-autobiographical novel by Maugerite Duras. While the film had a lot of potential to examine the changing climate of French Colonial Vietnam in 1929, the film ends up turning into...

At least the first 5 minutes were funny.....................

Sat, 1 Feb 2003 01:36:01 GMT

rating: 1/5 by: Epinions Author alan-smithee - Some friends of mine and myself do something about once every month called Bad Movie Night. We each try to find the worst and cheesiest bad movies that we can and then during a particular weekend we watch these wretched films one after another.
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96 minutes of progressive rock as only Dream Theater can deliver.

Wed, 29 Jan 2003 22:08:43 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author alan-smithee - Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence is the 2nd studio album with keyboardist Jordan Rudess who joined the progressive-rock-metal band for 1999's 78 minute concept album Metropolis Part 2: Scenes from a Memory. This 2002 studio album is 96...

The Hitcher still ranks as one of the best thrillers ever made.

Tue, 28 Jan 2003 15:05:51 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author alan-smithee - Back in 1986, little thriller called The Hitcher entered and exited theaters without hardly a sound. The film went on to gain quite a large and devoted cult following on cable and VHS. The film is now regarded by a lot of people as one of the best...

A great horror-comedy that hasn't lost its edge.

Mon, 27 Jan 2003 20:21:41 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author alan-smithee - Horror-comedies can be an extremely tricky thing to pull off. Most filmmakers who attempt to do one usually veer too far in either direction and the result is usually quite less than stellar. But one thing I have noticed about a lot of horror films from...

Not quite the perfect port of Contra 3 that I was hoping for.

Thu, 16 Jan 2003 01:35:29 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author alan-smithee - Konami's Contra Advance: The Alien Wars is actually a pseudo-port of the classic Super Nintendo action game Contra 3. The long-running series of Contra action/shooter games have seen appearances on almost all of the major gaming consoles...

Original, well constructed and truly nightmarish.

Mon, 13 Jan 2003 19:18:16 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author alan-smithee - Audition is an original little Japanese film that was originally released in 1999 but didn't see a proper U.S. theatrical release until 2001. The film quickly found its way onto numerous critics' "best-films-of-2001" lists. I had heard about this...

A truly great film that just gets better with age.

Fri, 27 Dec 2002 23:41:49 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author alan-smithee - In today's movie making world, audiences worldwide get blasted by so many blockbusters boasting tons of CGI effects and whiz-bang f/x that it sometimes becomes easy to forget the joys of movies where the focus is just on characters talking.
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"Live Scenes from New York" or How to Play Your Instruments Really, Really Fast!

Mon, 16 Dec 2002 23:09:57 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author alan-smithee - I've always had kind of a love/hate appreciation for the progressive-metal quintet Dream Theater. Being a musician myself (I play 6-string bass, keyboards, saxophone and drums), the displays of musical prowess displayed in almost any Dream Theater "song"...

Do yourself a huge favor and stay far away from this one.

Fri, 13 Dec 2002 04:13:16 GMT

rating: 1/5 by: Epinions Author alan-smithee - I have seen more than my fair share of bad movies during my movie watching existence. While a lot of them are so bad that they are actually funny (in a purely unintentional way of course), there have also been quite a few cinematic turkeys I've seen that...

Friday the 13th Part 9: Jason rips off The Hidden.

Mon, 21 Oct 2002 22:26:25 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author alan-smithee - Okay, I admit it. I actually have a soft spot for Friday the 13th films (well some of them at least). While none of them could ever be called truly great cinema (actually most of the films are downright awful), being a horror fan and self professed...

A cluttered and unfocused script sinks this movie.

Wed, 10 Jul 2002 23:04:22 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author alan-smithee - Better Than Chocolate had a lot of potential to be a great movie. First of all, the mostly unknown cast is superb and the movie actually treats a lesbian relationship in an honest and respectful fashion. But the filmmakers apparently wanted to...

Primus defies the laws of tradition on their 1st studio album.

Fri, 21 Jun 2002 17:10:56 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author alan-smithee - The bay area power trio Primus has traveled a different route then most bands. Their debut release was actually a live album in the form of 1990's Suck on This. While it might seem a bit unusual to release a live album as your debut, it made...

5 great cover songs performed in that inimitable Primus style.

Thu, 20 Jun 2002 18:49:04 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author alan-smithee - After the breakthrough gold-record certified success of Primus' 1991 major-label debut Sailing the Seas of Cheese, they decided to take a break in between opening act gigs on the Cheese tour and cut an E.P. of 5 cover songs in 1992 called...

Do yourself a favor and just stick with the original theatrical cut.

Thu, 13 Jun 2002 19:29:26 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author alan-smithee - Let me start off by saying that the original theatrical 153 minute cut of the 1979 classic Apocalypse Now is one of my personal picks for one of the top 10 best movies of all time. I was always disappointed that I never got to see the movie in a...