Pure reason revolution – Amor vincit omnia

{mosimage}Second album for the “astral-folk” British band that exhales a really great quality!

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must confess I had not much idea about what to expect from this second long-length  from the guys from United Kingdom. But I was happily surprised by a fresh album that combines rock, industrial metal and electronic rhythms with a good taste, sounding experimental but classy at the same time, a task not easy to achieve. With this “Love Conquers All” (the literal translation of the Latin album title). The male and female voices get mixed and the electronic parts sound catchy and modern. Listen as some highlights to the introductory Les Malheurs,  the excellent powerful Victorious Cupid or the experimental The Gloaming.

An album that you will love or hate, but certainly does not leave you indifferent. Some of the tracks would be perfect for a vampire movie soundtrack. A great follow up album that shows a band young but not afraid of doing what they want. We will have to follow them with a sharp eye in the future!

Rating 4/5.

Therapy? – Crooked timber

{mosimage}The veteran Irish punk rockers are back. It seems that the years catalyze their energy into a more fluid sound.

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till sounding powerful and fluid, it is true that in this album, maybe Therapy? has lost a bit the intensity and rawness of younger times, but on the other hand, has gained in balance and a more colourful musical palette. Well, when a band releases their 12th album, they have nothing more to show. Maybe they do not sound so appealing in the music industry anymore, but they still know how to produce a solid rock album. 10 tracks, no more no less, with quite heavy drums and heavy rhythms like in Enjoy the struggle or the monumental Exiles.

Theraphy? shows to the world that they are well alive and still kicking ass! No need to reinvent themselves when the result is just a good album of rock.

Rating 3/5.

Major Label – When I am with you you are safe

{mosimage}The trio from Helsinki features their second studio album, a must have if you like good pop-rock Finnish music.

I receive dozens of albums a month to review or check out. So it is not a small thing for me when I say that the new album by Major Label is so far my favourite and nicest surprise of the month. The Finnish trio sounds compact, with excellent quality, balanced, with the voice of Arto Tuunela mastering the tempo of every song, great lyrics, catchy tunes… what else can you expect? If you like rock bands with an experimental and indie twist, like Radiohead or A perfect circle, you are going to love these young Finnish fellas. Listen to outstanding tracks like When I am with you you are safe, The Scar or Said the Water to Land and prepare to enjoy a great musical experience!

A great album that sounds mature, well measured and gives hope of an excellent future for the band from Hell-sinki. And shit, do not forget about the CD artwork, especially the cover, the nicest and funniest I have seen for a long time!

Rating 5/5

Step Brothers

{mosimage}Ferrell and Reilly are back together in another hilarious movie featuring two jaded step Brothers who behave… like still being 7.

 

One of my favorite comedies in the last years is Talladega Nights, so no wonder I was expecting what Reilly and Ferrell could bring to the show this time. Well, actually I must admit I got a bit disappointed the first time I watched this movie, but I appreciated it more the second time I played it. Obviously, if you are into more deep and philosophical cinema, you are not going to like the easy humor displayed here. Jokes that have to do with shit, sex, bad behavior and a lot of lack of maturity. But if you are a fan of Ferrell’s movies, you will enjoy this one too. The best moments are usually when Brennan`s brother and his wife are around, apart from the exhilarating scene of the nuts sack all over the drum kit.  

Not the best comedy these guys have done, but it is worthy a few good laughs!

 

Rating 3/5

 

{mosimage}The best: I love the T shirts that the main characters wear all over the movie.

 

The worst: That a gang of children in a park can make you literally eat shit

 

The detail: In the final song Por ti Volare, both Ferrell and Reilly are actually performing.

  

Blindness

{mosimage}The most international Brazilian director, Fernando Meirelles, adapts the book of Nobel Prize Jose Saramago in a polemic and mind-awaken movie.

I had a big curiosity for this movie before watching it. I loved Meirelles previous City of God, and I also had the chance to meet in person Jose Saramago when he visited Helsinki a couple of years ago, so like it or not, I had quite big expectations towards this movie.

In a sense, the idea is pretty good, and the start is promising. But really, some holes in the plot really spoil the result. I have not read the original book, but I have heard opinions that many of the plot holes of the movie are better explained in the book, and I hope that it is true, because they really make you lose concentration on the action. I know this is a parabolic story about the human beings condition and the greed that can show the best and the worst of us, but still, it does not make any sense why the character of Julianne Moore, being the only one who can see in the wards, does not use this to avoid the killing and raping of other people there. The scenes of the women being raped is certainly disturbing, and surely can hurt more than one spectator´s sensibility.

The acting of the characters is good, the cast is certainly astonishing, reuniting people like the previously mentioned Moore, Danny Glover, Gael Bernal… but in some ways, the experiment of transferring the book into a movie does not work. It turns to be boring, non-logical, and slow. People gets annoyed by the flaws in the script instead of focusing on the human inter-actions there.  In my humble opinion, a bit of a disappointment.  

Rating 2/5.

 

{mosimage}The best: Gael Bernal makes a splendid role as the King of Ward Three

The worst: so you are the only one who can see, and still you let blind men abuse you and the people around you, raping and leading to starvation? Come on…

The detail: The National Federation of the Blind seemed not to be very happy about the portrayed image of the blind people in the film.  

Death Race

{mosimage}Jason Statham is an ex driver who gets a set up to go to jail and compete in the most deadly race ever created by humankind. 

Well, ok, it is pretty clear that the plot of this movie does not turn it into the perfect venue for Oscar interpretations, but I must confess I really enjoyed it very much as a good product of entertainment. The formula of fast cars, actions, adrenaline, pretty girls and friendship inside the walls of a prison works pretty well here. Jason Statham is once more very good in his role of tough action hero, and his effort to be physically fit really pays off in the scenes. Joan Allen as the mean prison director Hennessey is notable, as well as the rest of secondary roles, highlighting the Latin beauty Natalie Martinez as navigator in the car of Statham/Ames.

Great action sequences during the race as well as in some fight scenes and aggressively designed cars that would be the dream of more than one fanatic of “tunning” really places this movie into one of the best action ones I have watched lately. A kind of “Shawsank Redemption with fast cars and more violence” that will not let you down if you want to have a couple of entertaining hours.

Rating 4/5 

 

{mosimage}The best: Statham looking like a MA fighter.

The worst: Machine Gun Joe getting redeemed at the end. Everybody wanted him dead…

The detail: Statham was training with an ex-Navy seal for months to achieve the spectacular physical condition he shows in the film. 

Hellboy II: The Golden Army

{mosimage}Our red super hero is back with a sequel that promises even more action and entertainment than the first part!

Guillermo del Toro strikes back with the follow up to the successful adaptation of the famous comic Hellboy.; repeating in the main roles, Ron Perlman, a giant who can also acts, and Selma Blair, always mysteriously sexy.

Well, there is no doubt that Del Toro was the most reasonable choice to substitute Peter Jackson in the production of the incoming The Hobbit. If not, take a look at the atmosphere he is able to create in scenes such as the throne room of the Elves or the one in the Troll Market, that exhales a spirit mix of The Lord of the Rings and Star Wars, but also with a personal “Del Toro´s touch” in the design of the characters. The film is squared, with a good plot, without abuse of digital effects, and with excellent acting skills, and good doses of dark humour to counterbalance the action sequences. Even with a little load of psychological reflection. Nevertheless, the role of the superhero is always a tormented one, lonely path not understood by the humans he protects, the film is fresh, and the inclusion of the character of Krauss is another good point scored here.

Hellboy II offers all what the fans expected. In these years where we seem to be overwhelmed by comics’ adaptations, this saga still remains as one of the strongest ones on screen.

Rating 4/5

 

{mosimage}The best: The relation between Princess Nuala and Abe.

The worst:  We will have to wait long time for a third part, with Del Toro immersed in The Hobbit project.

The detail: Famous Spanish actor Santiago Segura, a friend of Del Toro, makes a cameo as guest in the auction at the beginning of the movie.   

Too much of University, too little of a decent future

Now that at my office work I am surrounded mostly by younger mates, and I can see how they get stressed with the studies and the exams, I look back at my period as University student (not so far time ago, I graduated from my second MD last year after a long and tortuous thesis writing process, where I was lacking motivation).

University

In the end, like many others, I can say that mostly my University titles are just something to add to the CV, and not much more. I am graduated in Journalism at Complutense Univesity in Madrid, and with a second MD in Communications at Tampere University in Finland. So I can say that I have had my share of exams, and also of bad professors. But without digging deeper about the topic of the quality of professors at University (that could be better), I would like more to reflect in these lines about how worthy is what we study.I have no doubt that many people around the world really enjoy most of their subjects, but it is true that along the years I saw that the majority of my student fellows were just thinking to finish their studies for the sake of having a title to bring some bright to their CVs.; and not because they did not like what they chose to study, but because they lacked motivation year after year. Is it worthy to waste so many hours of the best years of our lives for having just a piece of paper on the wall, while forgetting most of the things we studied short time after we read the books?

The idea to write a few lines about this came to my mind after realizing that one of my favourite writers, the American Neil Strauss (author of The Game or The Dirt among other interesting books) has just published a new work called Emergency, where he travels around gaining experience and knowledge to survive to extreme situations in the real world.All right, I do not want to reach such an extreme opinion as Strauss, thinking that a future nuclear war will leave us trying to catch rats to survive (although you never know what future will bring). I already knew when I started to study journalism that the future for students of humanities would be dark, and now with these times of crisis, more than one must be thinking “why the fuck did I decide to study this?”. But for real, for most of you, my question is “How much of what you studied at High School or at University has had a real value in your everyday life?

When I studied in Madrid, the faculty was pretty horrible, academically speaking. Most of the students, after the first year, were spending more time at the cafeteria than in the study rooms. In 6 years of studies, maybe we wrote just 2 or 3 texts, and we had difficult access to computers. We did not have to study any foreign language, and some instruments we were using were almost from Middle Age, totally useless in modern times.

University

Obviously, there could be many different opinions about this topic, but I could think of a virtual school or University where I could choose what subjects could be important to study, these would be some of my choices:

-Foreign languages: The more, the better. Of course, with special focus on English language. Is not really sad that human beings can travel to outer space, but they are still not able to communicate in the same language at a global scale?

-Literature, cinema and music: More interactive lessons, with more discussion among the students; combining classic artists with the new tendencies.

-Basic surviving skills: Things like how to prepare a fire in the woods, orientation, how to set a camping tent, fishing, basic stuff for fixing a car like changing a wheel, etc. Nobody had taught me any of those things.

-Basic use of computer programmes and programming: A must if you want to find a decent work in many countries. If you take a look at the job offer for foreigners in Finland, you realize what I am talking about.

-Cooking: So you decide to leave the parents house, and then you spend week after week on a diet of pizza and hamburgers?  Cooking is easy, is fun, is useful, and can create chances for more than one date…

-Personal defence: Because you never know what you can find in the streets. And exercising the body and mind a bit is always welcome!

-Writing and typing lessons: A person who can write fluently, with no spelling mistakes, and fast, gets many points to introduce himself as a valuable character.

-Lessons to speak better in public and improve social interaction: to know how to express well, with the correct tone and speed, and to handle different social interactions can divide the line between successes and fails in life. A good body language is something very important to feel good and secure with the ones around you.

As I said, these are just a few quickly ideas after a brainstorming. But it really pisses me off the present system at most of Universities and schools. Instead of creating better human beings that can be ready for future challenges, they just create zombies that must memorize books to forget 2 days later. We should have a system that can really improve us for what the future will bring, not a virtual academic system that teaches you things that in the end, have nothing to do with the real outside job reality. In the end, what we create are young monsters, frustrated, having to work in shitty jobs for a shitty salary, with a low level of culture even having a University degree, and wasting the best years of the life without achieving the dreams because lack of chances and money.

The Protector

{mosimage}Follow the steps of Kahm, a young Thai fighter who travels to Australia to recover his beloved elephant. Action is in the air!

Tony Jaa, who started to become really popular in Europe after his previous film Ong Bak, strikes back in a movie full of action and good fights. Certainly, he can be considered the Asian successor of Jet Li or Jackie Chan in the martial arts genre. The plot of the movie is nothing special. As you can imagine, there are many flaws, and the script is just basically an excuse to show the abilities of Mr. Jaa. But the fight scenes, that are basically the “core” of the movie, are astonishing, beautiful, fast and absorbing. There are a couple of excellent moments, like the sequence when Tony is climbing upstairs, with no cuts of camera for more than 4 minutes, just punching and kicking all what moves around, and another is in the room on fire, when he beats one after another the different martial masters of many disciplines.If you like Asian martial arts movies, you are going to love this one.

If you are looking for a better and deeper script combining with action, maybe some other kind of recent releases, like for example Taken, can fulfil you better; a question of taste. But from my point of view, this Thai one is a good spicy one to taste.  

 

Rating 3/5 

{mosimage}The best: The fight between Jaa and the capoeira master

The worst: It does not have English subtitles.

The detail: no stunt doubles were used during filming.

 

Pentujengit Alaskassa

{mosimage}The little buddies from the Disney series are back. This time, surrounded by snow immersed in a dangerous sledge competition in the middle of Alaska…

Well, obviously from the beginning, it is worthy to mention that this is a movie to watch in family; ideal if you have small children, or if you just want to show your most adorable and animal-caring side to your couple. The plot of the movie does not really matter, because obviously it does not make much sense that the dogs can be so smart to travel by themselves or even help in building a sledge. And obviously it would be impossible that just little puppies would win a sledge race against veteran huskies… So let´s forget about the continuous leaks on the plot and let´s focus on the positive sides… that are basically how cute the puppies are. Basically the movie has little more to offer than just showing some of the cutest dogs you can see in a big screen in the world. The 5 brothers are just adorable in every move, not mentioning the little Husky puppy, baptised by my girlfriend as the cutest puppy she has ever seen.

If you are looking for strong emotions, obviously this movie is not exactly exhaling adrenaline. But if you have small children who love dogs and animals, this is a very nice product to watch altogether. You get what it was expected, no more, no less. For me it was enough, although if it was just for missing my little dog there far in Spain, at my parent´s house…

Rating: 3/5

 

{mosimage}The best: Well, you just feel like adopting all the puppies when you see them moving so cutely.

The worst: It does not really give you much surprises, neither has a great developed sense of comedy.

The detail: Talon´s voice is done by no less than Kriss Kristofferson himself.       

Sex drive

{mosimage}Abandoning virgin territory is not an easy task when you are a teenager full of lust, but you do not want to behave like a jerk. Nothing like a good road trip to solve the problem…

Teenage comedies that deal with the sexual desire of unsuccessful youngsters are nothing new.  In the cover of the DVD, this new movie was advertised like being better than American Pie, so I was quite curious to check it out.

Unfortunately, the predictions were not true. Sex Drive is quite topical from the beginning to the end, so do not expect big surprises here. Even the sense of humour lacks of a bit more of transgression. Maybe 10 years ago, the movie would have been cool, but come on! we have seen dozens of the same kind of films during the last years.

If I have to choose something, I would stick to the good performances of the secondary characters.  Amanda Crew looks delicious as the eternal female friend Felicia, Seth Green is surprising in his role of the Amish Ezequiel, Clark Duke is maybe the best of the movie with his talent to seduce all kind of women (I see that the script writers have taken a look at PUA techniques) and James Mardsen is convincing as the angry older brother.  But Josh Zuckermann in the main role as Ian is just average, and you do not really feel much identified with his lack of talent or luck with the female sex.

With a couple of good moments, like the final funny ending with the “cat fight”,  the movie is just the average one you can see with some friends one evening while eating popcorns and forget 10 minutes later. Not a bad choice, but it does not really add anything much to the genre.  I was not expecting a masterpiece of comedy, but all in all, a little disappointment.

Rating 2/5

 

{mosimage}The best:  The references to PUA techniques to pick up women by Lance´s character.

The worst:  we want more “titties” and transgression in this kind of teenage comedies!

The detail:  It is said that one of every five relations in USA is started online. So maybe you have a Ms Tasty waiting for you there in some chat…    

Absoluuttinen nollapiste – arkistokuvaa 1992-2008

{mosimage}Here you have a double DVD that involves their trips and music during 16 years.

Here you have a piece of Finnish history, bringing by the band´s drummer Tomi Krutsin and the vocalist-guitarist Tommi Liimatan together with Pauli Hokkanen. 5 hours and a half of a documentary that, from my humble opinion, turns to be a little bit boring.  First of all, if you do not understand Finnish, you will have a problem because there are no English subtitles. The members of the band act in great part of the documentary like any other annoying youngsters who just want to have fun, but it is interesting to see the band growing up, and fighting the real battlefields of the Finnish rock music scene: the little clubs, although I must confess that they music is not exactly my cup of tea.

Obviously, if you are a band´s fan, you are going to receive this with open arms. There are some interesting extras included like a collection of pictures taken all over 13 years by Tomi Palsa or the documentary Kymmenen vuoden yksinäisyys. But for others who could be interested in this out of curiosity, I basically recommend you to think it twice before making an investment; the more than 20 euro that the DVD costs maybe cannot pay off if you are not a hardcore fan.

Rating 2/5.

The magic flute is living in the present – Jethro Tull concert at Helsinki Kulttuuri Talo

{mosimage}Just more than a band, a truly rock living legend, visited Finland to offer two excellent shows in Tampere and Helsinki during their 40th anniversary Tour. FREE! Magazine was in the show at the Finnish capital to check how Ian Anderson and company sounded there!

 

40

years is something that not many bands achieve. Fortunately, Jethro Tull is still alive and kicking ass! Probably the survival is due to the charisma of the only original component that remains, Ian Anderson. Nevertheless, he is the one who pulls the creative strings of the band, so it would have not been the same if Jethro Tull had ever lost him, and then basically, it would not be Jethro Tull anymore. Anderson himself joked during the concert about the continuous changes in the band formation, when introducing their “seventh” bass player David Goodier.

But before, a little adventure to arrive to the show on time…

I did not know if I would get the press ticket until a few minutes before the show, where happily I could see that LiveNation had positively attended my pledges. I was at that moment in the middle of nowhere in Espoo staying at a friend´s house, so after an odyssey through the “deep Helsinki big area”, and getting also lost in Kallio, I finally made it to Kulttuuri talo building. I had not been there since Yngwee Malmsteem´s concert, and the truth is that is not the best place in Helsinki to watch a concert. The acoustic is awful, and the organization places the fence 10 metres from the stage, losing much of the feeling of getting close to the artists.

 

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During the evening, I saw the best and the worst of Finnish nature. On one hand, people were nice and helpful to help me find the venue, in the end I walked with another guy who was also assisting to the concert. On the other hand, the kind of things that break my nerves about Finland and their “squared minded” organization: the entrance to the hall was forbidden if you were wearing a jacket, but when you had to leave it in the wardrobe, you had to pay in cash, and it happened I did not have any in my pocket. With the concert about to start, finally they made an exception and I did not pay, but the girl on charge did not forget to remind me that “I had to pay next time”. Please…if any organizer reads this, when will they realize that the wardrobe should be included with the general price of the ticket? And what if I feel cold and I want to wear my jacket inside the venue, is that a sin? Finland and its rules…  a never ending story.

 

Nevertheless, I finally made it in, and after a short delay Anderson and his British fellows appeared on stage. The flutist with his unmistakable handkerchief on his head attacked the notes of Crossed-Eyed Mary and continued with a good collection of the greatest hits of the band though their long history:  Beggar´s Farm, A Song for a Cuckoo, Farm on the Freeway, the acoustic King Henry´s Madrigal or the amazing Song for Jeffrey were some of the songs played, with Anderson cheerful, joking with the audience and introducing every song with a little history, apart from showing his virtuoso talent in solos with the flute, long but not tedious. He also joked about the Grammy Award they got years ago as best metal band, telling that of course they are not a metal band. Somebody from the audience quickly answered the famous sentence “The flute is a heavy metal instrument” that appeared in Billboard magazine.

{mosimage}The concert was divided into two parts, with a break of around 20 minutes in the middle. I must confess I do not like breaks in concerts, but well, this gives a good chance to the Finnish audience to go for a pint of beer meanwhile and chit chat a bit. Back on stage, the band continued with his good arts playing more anthems like the always awesome Thick as a Brick or Aqualung to end up with Locomotive Breath.

All in all, just a great concert that shows how old rockers never die. The audience was not wild, but silently enjoying, like sharing something magical and special that you cannot feel every other day. Older and younger people mixed;  fans of all ages with the band´s t shirts on just on a kind of mystical trance, moving their feet at the rhythm of Anderson´s diabolical flute.  Let´s see if they continue as good as now for the 50th anniversary tour in 10 years!  

The history of Richard O

{mosimage}A new French movie with high voltage of erotic scenes and drama. 

I must confess that I have never been a great fan of French cinema. Although being Spaniard, I never felt identified with the slow rhythms and the psychological drama of most of the contemporary French movies. There are of course a few exceptions like Amelie or L´Auberge Espagnol, but in general, French cinema bores me. And it happens more or less the same with this Historie of Richard O. The plot is twisted, the dialogues are blurry… the sex scenes although sometimes beautiful, do not transmit energy enough, Paris, although being on summer, looks like a boring city… Certainly Mathieu Amalric has charisma (for many of you he can ring a bell as the bad guy in the last Bond movie, Quantum of Solace), and his character is pretty lovable along the movie, being maybe the best his strange relation with Le Grand, but that is not enough to raise the movie to a decent level. 

As an anecdote, there is also Finnish language spoken in the movie by Tiara Comte, the girlfriend of Le Grand. If you are into French cinema and oppressive atmospheres full of characters tormented by existential questions, then maybe this film is for you. I will meanwhile continue praying for the French cinema to entertain me… 

Rating 2/5. 

{mosimage}The best: The charm of Amalric and the sauna scene, “Hyvin sanottu” 

The worst: I find it basically boring, not spiced up even with the erotic scenes. 

The detail: Mathieu Amalric is the villain in the last Bond saga movie, Quantum of Solace.   

Soulcage – Soul for sale

{mosimage}Second album for the Finnish band with a more settled formation and more mature sound. 

After their debut album in 2006 (Dead water diary), Soulcage are back stronger than every with a follow up album that offers the best they have: good heavy rock with sharp riffs, nice keyboards, a powerful drum, nice lyrics and the great vocals of Aleksi Parviainen (that I don´t know why, during some moments at the beginning of the album reminded me a bit of Ville Valo´s, although later the feeling faded away). 

Soulcage`s style is maybe closer to the American glam rock bands of the 80s and beginning of the 90`s, like Poison, Cinderella, Bon Jovi… Melodic rock with taste that can reach mainstream audiences. Tracks like I see, My Canvas, My Skin, the beautiful ballad Satellite children or the rougher Ride on are some of the highlights of an almost square rock album. If I have to put a “but”, I will complain again about the same trend that seems to be predominantly in all the recent Finnish heavy and rock releases: only 11 tracks for a full length album? Apart from that, a high quality hard rock album you should not miss! 

Rating 4/5