Epinions Recent Reviews for blackstar40

The ultimate awkward date movie - 'Harry Potter 6'

Thu, 16 Jul 2009 04:11:57 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author blackstar40 - In many ways, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is the ultimate awkward romance movie for sentimentalists and lost cause types everywhere. Within its two and a half-hour runtime, there are tremendously embarrassing - and surprisingly innocent...

Using stupidity to hide satire: Burn After Reading

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 10:30:02 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author blackstar40 - Examining Burn After Reading, it appears as if No Country for Old Men was both a blessing and a curse for the Coen Brothers: a blessing, of course, because it was the most acclaimed film of 2007 and won them the Oscar, but a curse...

An exorbitantly expensive recycling scheme: 'Terminator Salvation'

Tue, 7 Jul 2009 12:11:23 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author blackstar40 - Back in the 1980s, the world was neo-liberalist. We had dug ourselves out of a recession at the beginning of the decade (one that hit us hard) and rediscovered extreme capitalism. In 1984, the concept of a Terminator was scary. Walking out of the...

Sam Raimi doesn't quite score a return-to-form with Drag Me to Hell

Mon, 8 Jun 2009 09:28:51 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author blackstar40 - I am a really paranoid consumer, and whenever something gets heralded as a ‘return to form' my Spidey sense starts tingling. This unfortunate affliction strikes me down on both music and film; I got a bad case of it last year when R.E.M.'s...

"What happened?" An examination into the Presidency of George Dubya

Wed, 3 Jun 2009 05:04:40 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author blackstar40 - The third Oliver Stone biopic to turn its lens on an American President - following JFK and Nixon - W. follows the general structure of those two predecessors; well-researched, with an eye for detail, and some convenient...

Tom Hanks cleans up after the Pope in 'Angels and Demons'

Sun, 24 May 2009 01:54:23 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author blackstar40 - Tom Hanks is looking for something. Interrupted during his morning swim by a slick, foreign-accented agent of the Vatican, he is whisked off to the Holy City by helicopter on the trail of a holy killer. Good men are so hard to find. Of...

Careful, don't let it slip away - Francois Ozon's 'Swimming Pool'

Sat, 9 May 2009 04:20:52 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author blackstar40 - Sarah Morton is troubled. Biting her nails and looking sour on the London Underground, she's sick of murders and writing crime stories and everything else that being a successful author entails. She balks at being recognized by a commuter. She complains...

The 'sad and lost apostles' return for a boisterous fourteenth album

Sun, 13 Apr 2008 23:36:35 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author blackstar40 - I still find it amazing how quickly the press has welcomed R.E.M. back into the exclusive rocker’s clique. Since the long-standing band’s drummer Bill Berry departed in 1996, the critics have been ever more willing to dismiss the trio as yesterday’...

Sampling other people's music makes Kanye harder, faster, stronger, better

Sat, 1 Dec 2007 22:50:01 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author blackstar40 - "I need you to hurry up now / Cos I can’t wait much longer!!" So goes the call to Kanye West’s hugely catchy single "Stronger", from his third album Graduation. This is my first album of West’s, so maybe...

Conviction - Aiden: "In hell, laughing at your misery" - Aiden's Conviction breaks away from the mold

Sun, 9 Sep 2007 08:11:50 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author blackstar40 - There really are too many people up in arms about the way today’s rockstars look: if Aiden want to apply the fruits of their day job on covering their faces in mascara and face whitener and posing with dirty great knives in their promotional...

'Learn the sacred words of praise': Slayer's Reign in Blood (21 years on)

Tue, 6 Mar 2007 07:13:50 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author blackstar40 - In accordance with the March 10 for 10 write-off, and since it’s a while since I’ve poked my head out in these grounds, I’ve decided to take a short break from classics and pretty much have a month of metal. LET IT ALL OUT!...

'Termination, Expiration'... This bloated work fails to do Metallica justice

Fri, 19 Jan 2007 04:09:17 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author blackstar40 - I had high expectations going into …And Justice for All after Ride the Lightning. I’d only had one experience with Metallica previous to that on Master of Puppets, and album which most people know my opinion of. Still,...

Shedding real light on the Dark Side of the Moon

Sat, 13 Jan 2007 22:04:18 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author blackstar40 - I used to have a lot of respect for this album. It goes without saying that seemingly everyone on this planet enjoys what Dark Side of the Moon has to offer in experiments or atmospherics. After all, it doesn’t regularly top countless ‘...

'Oh here's to my sweet Satan'... Satanic New Year Debunking Special

Sun, 7 Jan 2007 07:53:23 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author blackstar40 - This review requires you to think for a moment. Whether society is getting desensitized is for Tool to discuss within their own music, but Satanism, in plain form, is still a strong topic, and if you hit it obtusely enough, you’re guaranteed to...

'YOU KNOW WHERE YOU ARE?! YOU'RE IN THE JUNGLE, BABY! YOU'RE GONNA DIE!'

Wed, 20 Dec 2006 07:09:19 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author blackstar40 - Maybe this is a smaller fish to fry than the Beatles, but this album is essentially a bloated dinosaur. It is on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time (at #61), and the tunes that everybody remembers never seem to go away, particularly...

"Nothing's more tiresome than coming up with reasons why the Beatles sucked": Classic Debunking begins

Tue, 12 Dec 2006 07:43:41 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author blackstar40 - Once upon a time, on one of those old black-and-white films you always see from the 50s-60s era, I can remember a reporter asking a young Beatles crew how they responded to the criticism that ‘they were nothing but a bunch of British...

'Not one of the others could ever compare...' Finally, 2006 nu-metal sees the light

Sat, 2 Dec 2006 07:50:40 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author blackstar40 - At long last! What with the piss-poor efforts of P
apa
Roach and T
he
Deftones in 2006’s “nu-metal band trying to expand their sound” workout, it was easy to...

An army of former rock stars creates yet more ‘bleh’ rock music

Sat, 18 Nov 2006 07:59:39 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author blackstar40 - One of the most infamous forces in rock over the past decade or so has been the supergroup. Usually comprised of a handful of members from past legendary bands (although sometimes – as in the case of T
he
Raconteurs -...

Killswitch Engage prove they can sustain themselves while other bands die

Thu, 16 Nov 2006 05:04:33 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author blackstar40 - Have you ever – Wished Howard Jones, frontman of Killswitch Engage, would give up his frequent use of faux-emocore screaming and explore more of the metal grounds the band is based in? Craved for more of his simultaneously catchy,...

In light of that treadmill video: OK Go's Oh No

Fri, 10 Nov 2006 18:42:35 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author blackstar40 - First off, the video. Everyone in the music biz knows that the internet is an important marketing tool in this day and age, right? Well, so do OK Go: they’ve been a bit of a nothing band for a while now, living comfortably off the...

Metallica briefly ride the glory wave

Sun, 5 Nov 2006 02:47:16 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author blackstar40 - There are some bands you just don’t get. The magnitude of what they are presenting simply can not be comprehended on first listen, or even first album. Apparently, Metallica are one of those bands. I started out with the thrash quartet...

The Deftones offer up some cheap Saturday Night thrills

Wed, 1 Nov 2006 04:30:13 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author blackstar40 - The Deftones are often thought of as one of the only neo-metal bands with any cred. Considering they’ve been around at least as K
orn
(with whom they appeared alongside at the revived Family...

Forget revenge or the bad hair-job: The Black Parade is an unabashed roll-call of bombast!

Tue, 24 Oct 2006 08:09:06 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author blackstar40 - God, what a bad dye-job it is. It makes Gerard Way, lead singer of My Chemical Romance, look like a cross between an albino and a lighthouse. Which, considering they’re something of the poster boys of the genre, isn’t a good...

Homage for Satan, Part 666 and a half: The Stench of Redemption (SMYW Write-Off)

Sat, 21 Oct 2006 08:19:50 GMT

rating: 1/5 by: Epinions Author blackstar40 - This is an entry into Brian
’s
‘Show Me Your Worst’ write-off, a groovy idea which I whole-heartedly endorse, and will hopefully be one of two entries for me, if he’ll allow that. Isn’t it...

"Come, break me down / Bury me": the power of illusion, 30 Seconds to Mars

Wed, 18 Oct 2006 07:52:26 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author blackstar40 - Cathartic. Atmospheric. Those are two words I’d use to describe the sound of 30 Seconds to Mars’ sophomore A Beautiful Lie. Which, considering their history and past, surprises even me. As if you didn’t know, the lowdown...