Monthly Archives: July 2014

Jul 18 2014

Mrs Brown’s Boys D’Movie Review- Stick to the Telly Mrs B.

I’ve been to see two stinkers within a week and I aint happy. Transformers buggered my brain up with its boisterous barbarity and I was hoping for a little respite from stinky cinema with an Agnes’ Brown’s big-screen adventure. The wait goes on.

After a quick Wiki stop to remind me of the dull plot details I was dutifully informed that D’ Movie sees the Brown family-stall come under threat from dodgy dealers set on replacing Dublin’s prized Moore Street Market with a shopping centre. If that sounds like an exciting and breathless adventure then I’d avoid the thrilling final auction on Bargain Hunt if you value your underpants.

This filum tries painfully hard to be funny. Fans of the show may revel in the relentless foul-mouthed gag-flinging and slapstick shenanigans yet writer and star Brendan O’Carroll breaks one of the golden rules of cinema- make the story at least half-decent for fecks sake. I didn’t expect a beaming, lung-popping plot but Mrs Brown and her forgettable boys regretfully belong in a cliquey little corner of the BBC far away from the demanding world of big-screen entertainment.

If anyone can recommend a half-decent film that’s out at the moment then I’ll buy you a chocolate biscuit.

Jul 14 2014

‘For Taylor Swift, the Future of Music Is a Love Story’- How Do You Feel About Your Music?

Take a look at the article at the bottom of this page by Taylor Swift. Tay-dog gets all philosophical about the music industry and its unsure future. The article has some really interesting points about the digital age that we find ourselves in and the subsequent relationships that folk may (or may not) have to music and their fave artists.

There will always be a demand for music. Forget alcohol or class As; music can invoke the most incredible and vivid emotion in people- think of the love-struck track that accompanied the first dance at your wedding, or the sorrowful croon-tune that helped you recover from a broken heart. Music has a massive place in many people’s lives, yet a large and possibly unhealthy proportion of music lovers want their music in the cheapest and most accessible way possible.

I used to gleefully rip songs from YouTube; praising the powers of the tinternet and its wonderful video conversion sites. I then adopted a more ‘mature’ stance after a stern conversation with myself- Do I want my favourite artists to keep making music? Yes of course Dave. Is 7.99 really that much to pay for an album that you’ll listen to dozens of times over the next few years? I reckon it isn’t Dave. I submit to your infinite wisdom.

If people really love a song, they may very well download it free. If people love the artist however, they may give them a little of their hard-earned cash in order to ensure they can make some more. Common sense really.

http://online.wsj.com/articles/for-taylor-swift-the-future-of-music-is-a-love-story-1404763219

So how do you feel about your music? Comment below!

Jul 7 2014

Autobots, bugger off. Transformers 4 Reviewed (unfortunately)

“I make movies for teenage boys. Oh, dear, what a crime.” I don’t think so Michael Bay. Literally no-one’s favourite director does an excellent job of mercilessly stealing THREE HOURS!!! of this teenage boys innocent life in his latest brain-blaster: Transformers: Age of Exstink-tion. We’re not all mindless morons you know.

Fair play to big Mike- he gets a gazillion dollars to make his ‘films’ so he can do anything he wants- an absolute tragedy for anyone that holds artistic values . Age of Extinction’s plot (term is applied very loosely) starts off with a complete rewrite of the K/T event, as beings know as the ‘Creators’ detonate their sneaky ‘seeds’ on Earth, killing the dinos. Skip (or rather trip) to the 21st Century and Lockdown (an over-sized bounty hunter) is on the lookout for big Optimus Prime who is sadly hiding from ungrateful humans intent on exchanging him for their very own ‘seed’.

Fantastic. Now that everyone hates each other Bay can gleefully turn the boom-factor up to unprecedented levels and batter you senseless with an insultingly-immature script, previously extinct stereotyping and plenty of brash bot-on-bot action. Hasbro will be delighted. So will Victoria’s Secret. And so will Budweiser. And so will a plethora of other sponsors that gleefully jumped on the shameful product placement blandwagon. I’ve never, ever, felt like leaving the cinema before and frankly I think this film should be destroyed. It’s bad for cinema, and it’s bad for your mental health. Even some of the famed CGI sequences are hit and miss, with some painfully laboured green-screen shots finding themselves interspersed with a few mesmerising action scenes. For a director that exchanges aesthetic appreciation with glorified brain-bashing this is not good enough. Thank goodness Bay only has the time to helm a film every couple of years, because this dumb, preposterous, and purely commercially-orientated freak-show will give you everything you were expecting, an unfortunately nothing more.