Sunday, February 17, 2013

Good Night And Good Luck (Review)

Project 52: 3/52

Easily the best movie from 2005 that I own - and it turns out I own a lot of movies released in that year - this is the black-and-white movie portraying Ed Murrow's fight against Senator Joe McCarthy during the 1950's.  I say this now without watching George Clooney's other 2005 feature, Syriana, but I'm confident it will hold up.

The movie is beautifully shot - can you imagine if it was released in colour?  It would be even more visually striking.  As it is, it works even better mixed with the historical footage from actual McCarthy hearings.

What I especially like about this film is that it portrays the people actually acting like real people.  I think some might find that distracting and consider the film boring, but it adds a level of realism to a fantastic biopic.

I really don't have much more to write about it than that...but I just had to get it out there.  If you haven't seen it before, go check it out now!


Saturday, February 9, 2013

CD Reviews - 54-40 - Dear Dear (1992)

Project 52: 2/52

In the interest of writing something every week, I picked an easy subject: album reviews.  But there's a twist; I recently spent time putting my CD collection back into their cases.

You see, several years ago when I moved to Sudbury, I had to move all of my CDs into a binder so that they were more portable.  Until just a few nights ago, they stayed that way.  Now they're back in their cases, and alphabetised.  Now I can re-visit them in alphabetical order and write about them.

First up is 54-40's 1992 album, "Dear Dear".  For the life of me I can't remember why I bought this album; was it for "She-La"?  For "Nice To Luv You"?  Probably the first one.  Either way, "Dear Dear" is a fairly bland alternative rock album that hardly kept my attention the whole way through.  Sorry, 54-40 fans.

There is one track that did work for me, though.  Strangely enough, it's not one of the official singles - which is not surprising when I think about it.  What were the singles?  The two I listed above, I think.  Prime examples of the bland, inoffensive nature of the album.

The track I enjoyed was "You Don't Get Away (That Easy)".  It has a few more layers to it and is overall much more interesting than any of the other songs on the album.

In short, if I were to downsize my collection (and that is a distinct possibility), 54-40's "Dear Dear" would be the first in the Value Village box.

Up next: Aerosmith - Honkin' On Bobo (2004); The Acorn - Tin Fist (2006); Herb Alpert - Definitive Hits (2001)