Music Video Monday - Kitty in a Casket

Been thinking about doing this as a feature for some time, but I always need to find the correct motivation.

I'm a huge fan of good music videos - there are so many inventive and original ways to showcase a band's music, songs, style and so forth.  Obviously there are just as many bad ways to do that, but this won't be that forum.  Honestly...over the last few years, I've probably gotten into more different bands/groups/artists just from checking out random (and not so random) music videos on youtube - not to mention AMVs (anime music videos), but we'll save those for another day.

From Repo: The Genetic Opera for instance - after picking up that soundtrack, I was lead to "The Devil's Carnival" - the follow-up project by the director and writer - and picked up that soundtrack.  Exploration of the singers featured in those songs and videos in turn lead me to Emilie Autumn and her albums and videos.

But that's just one example.  For tonight, we're going to focus on another group: Kitty in a Casket!

I first started checking out the Psycho-billy genre a few years ago after hearing a few albums with some friends (we'll look at those groups in the future) - and it's amazing what you can dig up in a few minutes on youtube:

Blu-Ray Review - Repo!: The Genetic Opera

This next review is for a movie adaptation of a stage production.  An off [off-off-off] Broadway production!  I definitely hope to have the opportunity to catch a stage version of this project at some point in the future, but for the moment, I've got to settle for the Blu-Ray. 

It's really a different sort of movie musical - not only is it really an opera in essence - virtually every single line of dialog is sung - either on it's own or as part of a larger song, but the plot itself is extremely operatic in terms of family betrayals, plots, trickery, lies and bloody, tragic endings.  Both gory and beautiful at the same time in different ways, I understand why a lot of folks may not enjoy a movie like this, but I enjoy it immensely.

And besides...if you've been wondering how you could find a movie musical just a little different from the rest of the ones out there.....one where Anthony Stewart Head laughs maniacally while gutting a man like a fish and then playing with the corpse like a ventriloquist or a musical where Paris Hilton's face literally falls off mid-way through her singing debut....well, this is it - Repo!: The Genetic Opera.

DVD Review - Rock & Rule

Well, seems I missed February completely - oh well.  There was a lot going on.

So we'll just roll the intended theme right over to March.  Which, in this case is - cool movie musicals (leaving out "Streets of Fire" since I already reviewed it).

Starting with Nelvana's first feature film - "Rock & Rule" - an animated post-apocalyptic rock musical from waaaay back in 1983 (although it was in development for a few years).

DVD Review - Voices of a Distant Star

Definitely a very different type of mecha piece - and sadly just a one-off 25 min OVA project.....But ohhhhhh, what a project it was!

With technology being what it is today, a solo anime project may not be quite the extreme oddity - but in 2003....That's right, I'm talking about Makoto Shinkai's "Voices of a Distant Star."

DVD Review - Patlabor: The Movie and Patlabor 2

I wouldn't normally do a review like this - but as I watched both Patlabor: The Movie and Patlabor 2 back to back again this weekend, it seemed to make sense.  This time around, I'm really interested in reviewing these more as police procedural movies that include mechs.  To be perfectly honest, as far as this month goes - I'm just too lazy busy to watch a whole season of a mecha show - so my selection of mecha feature films to choose from is a little more limited.

I'd heard references to these movies for quite a while before I finally got around to picking them up on DVD a number of years ago.  Of course, I don't believe the full series was available at that time on DVD, but might have been an out-of-print issue or something similar (see also the original Vampire Hunter D).  Sometimes I also hold out on picking something up if the reviews bring up issues like the lack of a Japanese audio track or very poor audio/video quality.

New Year - New Reviews

As I mentioned in the Pacific Rim review - this review was requested by another reader.  I always open to suggestions for reviews from titles in my collection.

My goal right now is a review a week - so four reviews a month or thereabouts.  With this in mind, I'm going to simplify things by going with themed months.  Since we started with Pacific Rim...this is going to be Mecha January!

I've got a few ideas for future thematic/genre months (mercenaries, non-western westerns, neo-noirs) - but if you've got ideas, feel free to drop me a line here as well.

Thanks!

Blu-Ray Review - Pacific Rim

Time for the first review of the year.  And by request of Solios, it's Guillermo Del Toro's 2013 effects extravaganza "Pacific Rim".

Now, as Solios suggested, I'm going to try and approach this review with a slightly different perspective.  In my opinion, it's a very fun movie in general - giant robots fighting giant monsters - bright, colorful, generally smooth combat well presented.  The plotting isn't deep, the characterizations aren't wonderful - but it's not that type of movie necessarily.  This isn't exactly "The Devil's Backbone" or "Pan's Labyrinth" - and it's not an adaptation like "Blade 2" or "Hellboy" - it's just a straight up popcorn flick - done very well!