Quick summer movies reviews

This week a movie about some mofo snakes on a mofo plane, one about a pageant contest for little girls, one about the very friendly world of fashion publishing in NY and the last one about the even friendly-er world of caving in the Appalachians.

Snakes on a plane
With: Samuel L. Jackson, Julianna Margulies, ...
Directed by: David Richard Ellis
Release date (France): august 30th

OK not the best movie ever but better than what I expected. I guess I don't need to tell you the story, the title is kinda self-explanatory, no? You have to see this movie preferably in a crowded theater as (just like for the "Rocky Horror Picture Show") the reactions of the audience are almost as important as the movie itself. Samuel Jackson overact just the right way, the fake CGI snakes are not so scary but whatever... just enjoy the ride. Don't forget before the movie to go and buy some fake plastic snakes to throw on the crowd at the right time... ;-)


Little Miss Sunshine

With: Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette, Steve Carrell, ...
Directed by: Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Farris
Release date (France): september 6th.

A dysfunctional family (the grand-father is a drug abuser near the end of his life, the father is a loser in his professional life, the son won't talk until he manages to enter the air force academy and despise everybody on earth except Nietzsche and the uncle has suicidal tendencies - actually only the mother and daughter seem to not be that far gone) decide to help the 6 years old daughter to achieve her ultimate dream: participating in a pageant contest called "Little Miss Sunshine". To do so they have to cross the country in the old familial van. IMHO one of the best movie released so far this year, the kind of movies, like Amelie, where you exit the theater with a big smile on you face just because you feel happy. I don't know why but I just love road movies. A road movie (and the best one for me would be Thelma & Louise) is a great vehicle (no pun intended) for a story and its characters. This movie is packed with love, the dialogues are great and the cast is perfect (Carrell as a gay Proust-literate with suicidal tendencies is another demonstration of this guy's talent). I don't need to say "Go and see it!", just... go and see it!

The devil wears Prada
With: Meryl Streep, Ann Hathaway,...
Directed by: David Frankel
Release date (France): september 27th

When Andy (Hathaway) arrives to take the position of Assistant to Miranda Priestly (Streep) the most powerful woman in the fashion world, she has to decide between her love life and mental health or a promising carreer in the fashion biz. Definitely more creepy than the snakes on a plane, Meryl Streep shines in this movie as the viper-like editor of Runway Magazine and perhaps won a new nomination for the Oscars 2007. Between the prospect of a flight in a 747 filled with snakes and being seated besides her character in this movie in another flight, I think I'd take my chance with the first one, survival instincts.

The Descent
With: Shauna MacDonald, Natalie Mendoza, ...
Directed by: Neil Marshall

One year after a tragic accident, six women go caving in the Appalachians. When their way back to the surface is blocked they have to find a way through an unexplored cave. Creepy. While Snakes on a Plane can be considered as a "horror movie" it draws more laughs than screams from the crowds. Not so much with this one as it's definitely one of the scariest movies since the first Alien. Note to self: consider not going back caving in the near future...

My summer '06 soundtrack

Mmmh... two of the best albums created these past few years released on the samed day (in the US), a coincidence? Probably, but a good one as I was desperately looking for my summer '06 soundtrack. Two great albums to listen to at different times of the day ("The Eraser" works better in the middle of the night when I can't seem to find sleep).

"The Eraser" is the first "solo" project from Radiohead leader Thom Yorke. "Solo" because most of the sample sounds and bits of electronic he used on it come from the Radiohead library that his regular bandmates created during the "Kid A" and "Amnesiac" sessions, kind of "Kid B" when you come to think of it. For once, Thom's voice is at the foreground, pure and beautiful as usual and sings of his usual demons and fears: "the fences that you cannot climb/the sentences that do not rhyme/in all that you can ever change/the one you're looking for/it gets you down" (Analyse). Harrowdown Hill in Oxfordshire is notable for being the place where the body of Dr David Kelly, a british weapon expert who opposed the Iraq war, was found in 2003. Apparently a suicide. Apparently. Yorke said that Harrowdown Hill is "the most angry song I've ever written in my life. [it] was kicking around during Hail to the Thief, but there was no way that was going to work with the band." Those expecting a Radiohead album might be disappointed. Instead, Thom invites us inside his personal bubble, a sometime nice, sometime scarry place.
Favorite tracks: Analyse, The Clock, Black Swan, Harrodown Hill and Cymbal Rush

"Black Holes & Revelations" is Muse's fourth album. Where the first three album were "pure" rock, Muse succesfully incorporates some electronic bits here and there, kind of their own "Kid B" in fact ;-p So, passed the first surprise, from the very political opening song Take a bow ("Corrupt, You're corrupt, Bring corruption to all that you touch/Hold, You behold, And beholden for all that you've done/And spin, Cast a spell, Cast a spell on the country you run/And risk, You will risk, You will risk all their lives and their souls" hmmm, I'm wondering who he's talking about... S or G?) to the very Prince-like Supermassive Blackhole, the inspiring Invicible, the western-like Knights of Cydonia and the radio-friendly Starlight, Matthew Bellamy (please stop the comparisons with Thom Yorke or Jeff Buckley, Muse's leader has definitely earned the right to not being compared to other people) covers a lot of different musical styles with his sometime powerful sometime touching voice and weaves once again a very epic in scope tapestry, an heroic rock album (heroic rock? heroick? I have to copyright that!). It's refreshing to see a band evolve as they do. I saw them live for their first concert in Paris back in 99 (they were really young and totally unknown at the time) but they totally rocked da house. Fast forward 7 years and four albums later on the other side of the Atlantic: last week in Hammerstein Ballroom in New York, a little bit less young, more experienced but still the same amazing energy on both old and new material (Butterfly and Hurricane is still one of the best piece of opera rock ever written and watching it live is a pure joy).
Favorite tracks: all!! (with a special mention for Map of the Problematique and Invincible)

Both albums need to be played a few times. After that, it gets really difficult to listen to something else... (hopefully not until my Summer '07 Soundtrack).