Troll Hunter (DVD)

Yes indeed! It’s about a man. A man who hunts trolls. Need I go on? You should be heading off to your local video store and renting this out based solely on its premise.

This Norwegian film takes the old ‘lost footage’ theme and gives it a little breath of fresh air. The CGI creations are extremely well done and the drama unfolds well, allowing you a sneak peaks at the creatures before letting you have it with both barrels. I haven’t had this much fun in ages…these aren’t like those plastic trolls with the pink hair!

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (DVD)

Out of all the summer blockbusters, this was one of the more cerebral offerings. It is still however a ‘blockbuster’, so expect loud action scenes and some unintentionally daft moments (a gorilla attacking a helicopter!). The CGI apes are staggeringly realised (again, splendid motion capture work by Andy Serkis) and on occasions leaving the actors stranded.

Overall, great fun and an interesting ‘prequel’ explanation on how those damn apes took over the world.

Bear McCready (Battlestar Galactica – Season Two OST) - CD

Being a bit of a Battlestar fan, I decided to revisit this album and having done so, it is, in my opinion, one of the best OST in recent times (up there with the Driver and Kick Ass).

The music perfectly captures season two’s dark themes and McCready’s ‘Colonial Anthem’, which you will remember from the original, is right up there with anything that John Williams has ever written. I must watch the series again.

As a side note, check out Katee Sackoff on Twitter, she really writes some fun stuff...@Kateesackhoff

Mastodon (the Hunter) - CD

Moving away from their traditional concept album, this is heavy, sludgy, brutal brilliance – each track thunderous enough to knock down walls! Occasionally you can detect a slight Alice in Chains resemblance (definitely not a bad thing), but this is very much its own growling beast. Buy it and play it loud…just not too close to delicate walls!

AM & Shawn Lee (Celestial Electric) - CD

I recently stumbled across this collaboration between American singer/songwriter AM and English based American musician Shawn Lee and I have to say, I wish all my stumblings were this good.

If Grandaddy were to write 70s film soundtracks, it would sound a lot like this album. This funked up delight is a must buy, one of my favourite albums at the moment!

Follow them on Twitter...@amsounds

Transformers: Dark of the Moon

So, I eventually got round to watching the third instalment of the disappointing Transformers trilogy. It took me a while, due to watching the second part transform into a load of crap before my very eyes. I mean a Decepticon with a massive pair of wrecking ball testicles. Whatever next, an Autobot with air bag boobs?! Oh and don’t get me started on the ‘humorous’ comedy relief robots, probably the biggest character misstep since George Lucas introduced Jar Jar Binks.

Such was the bitter taste left in my mouth, that I didn’t even think about going to see Transformers: Dark of the Moon at the cinema, waiting instead for it to limp out on Blu-Ray. I have to say, it is a pleasant surprise, not a good one, merely pleasant. It’s much better than the second, but not quite up to the novelty factor of the first.

The opening premise is interesting, giving the first moon landing a nice slant and explaining a little bit more on the Transformers arrival on earth. For those of you like me, who were raised on the cartoon and comics, there are some lovely little geek moments – the ark, Cybertron, the Matrix and the arrival of Shockwave, who is pretty angry!

The film is all about the robots, the human characters are obviously just there to save us from CG overload. Rosie Huntingdon-Whitely replaces Megan Fox, and gives a mannequin performance, merely acting as a clothes horse for many number of tight white dresses. John Malkovich obviously had some spare time on his hands and completely chews up the scenery in a completely bonkers and needless cameo. Shia LaBeouf’s character has seemingly become more and more insignificant over the films, much like his character arc in the story. Ah yes, the story…

The story is, well, slight shall we say. The Autobots battle a new adversary they thought was on their side, but sides with the evil Megatron. Their dastardly plan is to enslave the human race and bring Cybertron into our orbit. Basically the story is an excuse to have massive action scenes and not much else.

The action scenes are pretty spectacular as you would expect and the whole thing is pretty exciting. However, I know this may sound strange, but I think the Transformers are a little too detailed, as when the action is really kicking off, sometimes you don’t have a bloody clue what’s going on, who’s fighting who, it’s just a mass of metal. They should have kept them basic like the cartoon, a few blocks put together with a wheel here and a wing there.

Speaking of the cartoon, I still maintain that the 1986 cartoon movie is a far superior film and has a great story. Believe it or not, it was also Orseon Welles last film before he died. It also features Leonard Nimoy, who voices Sentinal Prime in the new film, which meant I couldn’t help thinking ‘he was much better as Galvatron’.

Overall, an average and entertaining third instalment…but please no more, I don’t think my childhood dreams can take another pounding.

Flash reviews – all wrapped up in a delightful review bundle

Vaccines (What did you Expect from the Vaccines)? – Lot’s of angular guitars and boing boing choruses…sounds like the Strokes. Good…if you like the Strokes!

Beastie Boys (Hot Sauce Committee – Part 2) – Back-to-basics for the middle aged ‘boys’. Think of their low-fi classic ‘Paul’s Boutique’ and this comes very close. Maximum fun and hugely entertaining.

Ed Sheeran (+) – Personally speaking, over hyped singer songwriter with a couple of decent, well written standout tracks. Unfortunately too many of them fail to connect and don’t really go anywhere. Some even border on mainstream sugar-coated mush. Sorry, but when you have people out there like Patrick Watson, Bon Iver, James Vincent McMorrow and William Fitzsimmons, you really must try harder.

Phoenix Foundation (Buffalo) – Delightful, lazy pop-rock all the way from New Zealand. A sprinkling of prog, a dash of 90s indie and a smidgen of Beach Boy harmonies and you have a sublime album for a summers evening.

X Factor face off!

For some unexplainable reason I watched almost the entire season of the X-Factor, I’m not sure why, I just got sucked in by all the bright lights, freaks, Louis Walsh’s changing hair colour and the desperation in peoples fame hungry eyes. Luckily for me, that was the first and last time it got me.

However, it did introduce me to one Rebecca Ferguson, the only redeemable factor of the X-Factor. Her unusual, haunting voice has the ability to make a grown man weep. Several times when watching her performances I had ‘something in my eye’.

Naturally, her pure, raw talent wasn’t enough to win the show due to the majority of people watching the show being screaming, impressionable girls who voted for Matt Cardle, who to give him some credit has got a unique voice.

As is tradition with the show, it’s always the winner that comes out worse, often being forced to release some limp, insipid covers album just before Christmas ready for your mum’s stocking. The runners up tend to release the best material, and so it show’s in Rebecca Ferguson’s debut album, Heaven.

I wouldn’t normally go out and buy an album by someone who appeared on a ‘talent’ show, but such was the power of her voice, I felt that I had to. The fact that she also told Simon Cowell that she would be recording her own material or nothing at all made me take even more notice.

Not shackled to the demands of hastily producing an album, she has produced a rich and soulful record. One of the stand out tracks on the album, Glitter and Gold is filled with 1970s attitude and swagger, with a great horn section and Ferguson completely smashing the lyrics, going from whisper to full throttle. At the other end of the spectrum, Shoulder to Shoulder shows the delicate side of her voice.

This is a great first album, soulful and epic (check out the brass on some of the tracks, proper big band stuff) and is a good antidote to the monstrously overplayed Adele. So, the X Factor has found us a star after all.

As a footnote, it would be rude of me not to mention Matt Cardle’s album. I have been privy to a listen and the result is, well, predictable from an X Factor winner. It’s an album full of ballads and key changes. That’s not too say it’s bad, it’s a marked improvement on the dross that tends to come from an X Factor winner, but you feel that the chap would be much better off fronting a rock band, like he did with his old band Seven Summers which were pretty good.

The album has its moments, but falls down on a couple of weepy ballads and at times sounds like something ColdPlay or James Morrison should be singing. There’s no getting away from the fact that he has a unique voice, it’s just the material that lets him down. Go on Matt, get back in front of a band, one James Morrison is enough.

Oh and it includes that horrendous key changing cover of the Biffy Clyro song.

M83 - Hurry Up We're Dreaming

Hurry Up We’re Dreaming is M83s sixth album and a double album at that! The brains behind M83 is Anthony Gonzalez, another French musical wizard (see Daft Punk, Air, Phoenix) and he may well have crafted the album of 2011. Sorry to delve straight in with telling you how good it is, I just couldn’t contain myself!

Gonzalez said that when he heard the Smashing Pumpkins double album, melon collie and the infinite sadness he knew that one day he had to make a double album himself. Smashing Pumpkins, I thank you!

The album, following the theme of dreams, is hard to pin down musically. Overall, it has an 80s Europop feel to it, which may sound naff, but is interwoven with different genres throughout which makes it sound completely fresh and surprises you at every turn.

The opening track, Intro, sounds like something that could have been on any one of Peter Gabriel’s albums from the late 80s while Wait sounds like something the Fleet Foxes would play on their farm! Some of the instrumental moments wouldn’t be out of place on Vangelis’ Bladerunner soundtrack, while When Will You Come Home sounds like Jean Michel Jarre…I know!

The fact that M83 has toured with the Killers (beginning of New Map could be a Killer’s track), Kings of Leon and Depeche Mode just goes to show how eclectic their music in. It seems very unfair of me to compare the album to all these other bands and musicians, it is its own unique beast and one you’ve probably not heard of before, but once it’s claws get gripped in to you, you’ll be extremely pleased.

It has everything you could want, synths, rock, country 80s funk (Claudia Lewis) and more. This is a stunningly beautiful album, that suprises you on every track. I can’t recommend it enough.

Stand out tracks: Midnight City and OK Pal

Unforgettable

Unforgettable is the new primetime series brought to us from Sky Living. The show revolves around former police detective Carrie Wells who has a rare (yet handy for the show!) medical condition that allows her to visually remember everything. Everything that is apart from who killed her big sister when they were children. That’s not so handy.

The series started by introducing her hustling in casinos and winning card games left right and centre, thanks to her amazing memory. The she got caught, acted tough and got one over the crooks who owned the casino. In this short space of time we know that she’s one of those don’t-mess-with-me-because-I’m-angry-and-have-a-past-that-makes-me-gloomy type of clichéd women cops.

Anyway, she ends up rejoining the force as a consultant, working for her ex (Dylan Walsh – him from Nip/Tuck) solving crimes the police are obviously too incompetent to do so themselves. It is at this particular moment that I thought, hang on a minute, this is like the Mentalist, but with a tough women, rather than a dandy gentleman.

It isn’t a bad start to the series, it’s just that Sky Living series tend to be quite tame, with a soft focus sheen replacing any gritty realism (the Ringer for instance). When you compare this to other cop shows currently on, such as Southland and the far superior Mentalist, this seems like a stopgap until the mentioned shows return on air.

The whole visual memory hook is quite interesting - shown by her watching herself in slow motion go through crime scenes – but completely unbelievable and overused.

Poppy Montgomery gives a good account of herself in the lead role, constantly wearing a frown, tight tops and wading into crime scenes with the confident swagger of a woman on a mission. But ultimately this is let down by relying too heavily on a one trick premise and the lingering shadow of Patrick Jane.

I know it’s a predictable way to end this review, but Unforgettable is largely forgettable.

Sky Living (Monday 9pm)

The Horrible Crowes - Elsie

On the back of two extremely successful and excellent albums (The ’59 Sound and American Slang) Gaslight Anthems lead singer and the ‘new Bruce Springsteen’ Brian Fallon, presents us with a totally new offering.

Horrible Crowes is Fallon’s, along with his guitar tech Ian Perkins, stripped down and back to basics album. Dispensing with the large stadium crunching choruses of his day job, Fallon has crafted an all together more bluesy album.

Elsie takes in moments from the darker side of life, wrapping it all up with tinkling piano and acoustic guitars, making for a slightly angry fireside companion.

Fallon’s gravely voice is extremely suited to this low key affair, becoming almost another instrument on some tracks. Occasionally it does slip into Gaslight Anthem territory and for a brief moment you could be listening to the quieter bits of the ’59 Sound.

Comparisons have to be made to that of Greg Dulli’s (Afghan Whigs, Twilight Singers) solo work, which is no bad thing. Dulli continuously walks in the darker shadows of life, but manages to constantly eek out beautiful songs and the Horrible Crowes aren’t to far away from managing the same trick. Perhaps they should follow Dulli around for a while and then write another album.

If you like the Gaslight Album, I’m pretty sure you’ll love this. If you’ve never listened to that band, but like laid back, raw emotional songs, this is right up your street. Good stuff.

Stand out tracks: Last Rites and Behold the Hurricane.