Rambles about the wonderful world of wrestling.
If you’ve ever sat in a smoky room, squinting at a TV screen through the fog of whatever is being inhaled around you and struggled to make out exactly what is going on, then you are probably prepared for the experience of watching Inherent Vice.  The latest film from Paul Thomas Anderson, sees the Hollywood auteur try to adapt the famously incomprehensible novel of Thomas Pynchon.
With just a two month turnover between live specials, the latest NXT Takeover: Rivals, has had roughly eight hours of Network time to promote itself into a strong show. Â To put that into perspective, the main roster do six hours a week with Raw, Smackdown and Main Event. Â Therefore, it is a bit of a disgrace that this again feels like one of the best built WWE shows in recent times.
Matthew Vaughn made his name directing the stylish and ultra violent Kick Ass.  An adaptation of a Mark Millar comic, which took a very different look at super heroes.  It was successful enough that he bagged himself an X-Men film.  However, with Kingsman: The Secret Service, it appears Vaughn is going back to the w, as it’s another Millar adaptation, but this time see’s him dealing with gentlemen spies.
Usually when The Bronx come to town, they leave a trail of destruction in their wake. Â Upturned tables and a crowd with a look that sits somewhere between confusion and ecstasy are their stock in trade. Â However, every now and then they leave that insanity behind. Â They don the Mariachi gear and choose instead to serenade us, with tales of love, life and all those other lovely things.
Continue reading “Live Review: Mariachi El Bronx w/ Pounded By The Surf”
1981 was one of the most violent years in New York’s history.  In a city with the history of New York, that is saying something.  A Most Violent Year brings you into that city.  It depicts a dark, dank place where violence and corruption are such a normal part of day-to-day life, that they are as common to the people involved as they would be shocking to you or me.
Over the last few years, nu-metal has become the music industries whipping boy. Â Articles like this one, are a common sight on my Twitter feed, while even I have been knowing to throw the occasional barb in its direction. Â Yet, is that really fair? Â Is nu-metal the giant pile of shit we all like to make it out to be? Â No. Â No it really bloody isn’t.
Testament of Youth is based on the First World War memoir of the same name, which was written by Vera Brittain.  The novel has been widely proclaimed as a classic, as it represented the one female voice among a plethora of males ones looking at the war.  It has previously been presented as a TV production, but this is the first time it has made its way to the big screen, under the direction of James Kent.
Making the leap into the directorial chair has scuppered many respected figures within the film industry.  Last year, Wally Pfister made the transition from cinematographer to director with Transcendence, a science fiction film that was universally panned.  This year, we see Alex Garland, the writer of films like 28 Days Later and Sunshine, make a similar jump with his debut directorial feature, Ex Machina.
Being Marilyn Manson must be weird.  I mean you only have to look at a picture of the bloke to figure that out.  Throw in the countless rumours, which have swirled around him since he burst onto the music scene (I’m pretty sure he still has all his ribs), a love of absinthe and an image that is part Voldemort and you end up with a musician whose world probably resembles The Nightmare Before Christmas.  Yet that is not even the half of it, because this is also a man who has given us one hell of a collection of music since the release of his debut, Portrait of an American Family, in 1994.
Last year the WWE had Batista win the Royal Rumble and we saw a crowd turn on the WWE. Â A year on and nearly everyone, myself included, thought WWE could not make the same mistake again. Â Sometimes, the most obvious story is the best one and last night the most obvious, and best, storyline, was to have Daniel Bryan win the Royal Rumble. Â Yet, once again, WWE went with their idea of the perfect superstar and a crowd turned on the product.
