In the past year I’ve watched a number of movies that reminded me of the tone of MAN ON A LEDGE, LIMITLESS and MARGIN CALL being the first two that spring to mind. The tempo and style of this movie has been seen many time before, but does somewhat unknown director Asger Leth show us anything that we haven’t seen before? Well, not exactly.

The movie centres around a wrongly convicted ex cop Nick Cassidy (played by Sam Worthington) who has escaped police custody while attending his fathers funeral and checked in to midtown Manhattan’s Roosevelt Hotel. After devouring a lunch of lobster and champagne he climbs out onto the ledge. As you begin to wonder for what reason could he be suicidal, the character of Lydia Mercer (played by Elizabeth Banks) enters the tale as the only person that Cassidy trusts to listen to his reasons for being on the ledge. Mercer is a police psychologist who has recently been involved in her own scandal as negotiations had not gone well on a previous job which had led to the death of a rookie officer. As a crowd of onlooker and media begins to gather below the hotel window ledge Mercer begins to suspect that this may not be a suicide plan.

The movie then begins to play out in two separate parts. One part being the psychological and tense conversation between Mercer and Cassidy on the ledge, and the other involving Cassidys brother, (played by English actor Jamie Bell) along with his girlfriend (the quite eye-catching Genesis Rodriguez), taking on a MISSION IMPOSSIBLE style quest to prove his brother innocence by breaking into a bank vault. You begin to see that perhaps Cassidys reasoning for standing on the hotel ledge was to act as a decoy, but this is never made clear. The fact that this is never made clear was the major flaw of this movie and basically led to the whole story seeming implausible. A number of the action scenes played out within the bank vault are frankly silly and have been seen in many similar bank heist style movies before. Heat sensors? Check. Security alarms? Check. Ventilation shafts just big enough for a person to climb through to disable an alarm? Of course.

Despite the holes in the plot, the film moves briskly and many of the well known actors within the movie give good performances (even well known actor Ed Harris can be seen in a number of scenes as the movies villain) and you do find yourself rooting for lead guy Nick Cassidy. The camera shots are well done and quite creative in parts, but sadly they don’t do enough to save the movie. I’m not saying don’t watch this movie, I’m simply saying wait a few months until it’s out on DVD and you’re in the mood to watch a movie that you can switch your brain off to and simply enjoy it for what it is, instead of worrying about what it isn’t.

DROP-D RATING: 6 / 10

You recently headlined the Small Town America/+4 showcase in Dublin, headlining over a selection of bands, many of whom Drop-d have been following since their inceptions. Who stood out to you, who impressed you?

I really liked all the bands on the bill. I missed the first 2 acts unfortunately but I have their CDs, it was a great line up.

With a follow-up album due in 2012, we have to ask, what can we expect next from FWW? What twists and turns await us?

Expect lots of touring, it’s been a while since we had a record out, we’re just excited that people are going to get to hear it at last. The new record isn’t a million miles away from what we were doing on the first one but it’s definitely a step up in terms of songs and sonically.

The first album, Man vs. Monster, released in 2008 and the resultant hype was indescribable, with magazines and radio all rallying to your side. What do you make of it all in hindsight?

It was crazy at the time but exciting to see people get behind what we were doing, good times.

The Northern Irish scene has exploded in recent years. We’ve all seen ASIWYFA, Mojo Fury et al scale the heights. Who do you see being the next to make that step up?

I think this year will be a great year for More than Conquerors, Axis Of and The Rupture Dogs, these bands have albums coming, I’m excited.

With the recent flurry to save BBC Introducing… Northern Ireland, and Head closing down in Belfast, obviously it’s not all sunshine at the moment. What outlets do you see developing for music in Northern Ireland in the next few years?

It’s all changing fast and I guess the artists have to come up with better ways to get their music to the people. I suppose in an ideal world the band could sell direct to the people we wouldn’t need record companies but there’s something about the physical copy, the vinyl, the cd, flipping through the lyrics and the artwork we loved it, but it’s disappearing now, downloads are the future I guess. It’s about content, people want more for less so we have to step it up. I see a lot more bands taking control of their own business, I think that is where we’re headed, it’s a very uncertain time  and it’s hard to gauge what’s coming next.

Are ye heading back to the festival circuit this year? Fighting With Wire are hardly new to it all but is there any festival left you’d like to play?

Yeah we’re gonna try to play as many festivals as we can this summer. We would love to play Electric Picnic, we’ve never played it and it’s such a good festival.

Touring with Helmet this year has got to be a big deal for ye. Has anyone gone and made comparisons yet?

We love Helmet, they are one our favourite bands, we did 3 shows with them at the end of 2010 in the UK, it was amazing so we’re super excited about this tour.  No one has drawn any comparisons. We’re definitely influenced, but I don’t think we sound anything like, them.

You’re going on tour with Helmet, you’ve supported Biffy Clyro and countless others… is there anyone else you’d like to share a stage with?

NIN.

If FWW ended tomorrow, full stop, how would you want it to be remembered?

“Who?”

Pop quiz. Name a metal band from South Africa… You may or may not have swiftly answered that question but the majority of you would have had to ponder it for a moment or maybe even gave up immediately. The point is that South Africa, and specifically Cape Town in this instance, isn’t exactly known for its bustling metal scene, which is why it’s a strange, but wonderful, turn of events to find that Cape Town has produced one of the most enthralling black metal records in some time and sure to be a standout for 2012.

Enter, Wildernessking. Formerly known as Heathens, the four-piece has completely re-invented and rejuvenated themselves with utterly stunning results. The Writing of Gods in the Sand is a heady listen from start to finish, capturing what is sure to be a vital moment in the beginning Wildernessking’s black metal flourishing.

Typical, but by no means prosaic, black metal screeches dominate the din while guitars sear through with relentless tremolo-picking and equal measures of slow, moody and meandering leads like on Discovery.

River opens with a breath-taking, but oddly solemn, guitar lead that eventually descends into another hail of fiery riffs. In fact, The Writing of Gods in the Sand is heavily garnished with thrilling and sleek guitar playing. Guitarists Dylan Viljoen and Jesse Navarre Vos effortlessly sculpt out vast, towering sounds that loom exhilaratingly overhead, and River and the instrumental Reveal encapsulate much of what is great about this record. Surrender meanwhile scales and scales to a beautiful close, exhibiting the contrast of the harsh and serene.

The Writing of Gods in the Sand is an album executed with cerebral precision, every riff, every shriek; just every moment is complementary to one another, working towards an enthralling end product. This has definitely set a high benchmark for black metal for the rest of 2012.

Drop-d Rating: 8/10

Wildernessking

Folks!  It’s been a while since we chimed in and I hope you’re as revitalised as I am.  We have a few plans being put into the pipeline and recently we had Akumakon, Ireland’s first anime or gaming convention of 2012!  Luckily, I was on hand to check it out and if you missed it, well, where were you?

Akumakon has the snazzy distinction of being the first anime convention of the year in the UK and Ireland, and is the second in Europe behind Desucon in Finland!  On top of that, it’s in Galway, and I really, really like Galway.  People are sick of hearing how much I like Galway whenever it’s mentioned, so best not to get me started.  Akumakon is in its second year and has made a big step up – there was a visible increase in the level of organisation compared to last year (by that I mean everyone seemed less stressed), there was a good array of talks and events on and the traders hall was filled out.  Everyone was in a great mood and it was fantastic to see so many people from all over the country making their way to Galway for this.  I don’t know about numbers but to me it definitely felt bigger than 2011.

An unexpected highlight for me was the Saturday night festivities.  I was aware of the events that would be on but until they were happening it didn’t really occur to me how great they’d be.  I caught the burlesque show and the fire breathing so I unfortunately missed out on the Yu-Gi-Oh! drinking game and possibly one or two other events, but I think I made the right sacrifice – both shows went off perfectly and for me really made the convention.  Wa Café catered the whole weekend and every time I eat there I’m convinced they might just be the best Japanese restaurant in the country.  I had to leave around 1pm on Sunday so unfortunately missed out on an impromptu dance class and the closing ceremony, but I was left with the impression of an enthusiastic committee doing some great work.  If you missed it this year, put it in your diary for 2013, you won’t be disappointed.

I do need to leave a quick note for you all, and it’s not a nice one.  Replay Games were trading at Akumakon and they were blatantly selling bootleg anime DVDs and figurines.  This is the kind of dirt that’s played a part in so many anime distribution companies going to the wall over the past few years; if you see Replay Games or any trader at any anime convention selling knockoff goods, inform a committee member!  I’ve seen Replay Games try this act before and it looks like they haven’t changed.  Avoid.

On a somewhat related note, I’m sure many of you heard that Bandai Entertainment over in America is effectively shutting up shop and will no longer be producing or distributing any physical media.  Given their track record of releasing some of the best anime of the last 20 years (including Cowboy Bebop and The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya), it’s a huge blow and leaves a gulf in the market that shows no immediate signs of being filled.  Luckily their existing anime back catalogue will continue to be manufactured until the licenses expire, however if you were keeping up with the Gurren Lagann manga… oh well!  It’s another sad tale in physical distribution.

But hey, let’s look to the future!  There’s a surprise that’s burning its way through my skull and wants to shout it out over the rooftops, but I’ve promised myself and others that I’ll keep shut.  Suffice to say I’ll fill you all in next time but keep an eye out on the Eirtakon (and Nom-Con! Or am I giving away too much?) Facebook page for a fantastic announcement very soon.

There’s been a small bit of work going on at camp Eirtakon recently.  Behind the scenes we’ve been looking into guests, getting the new committee member settled in and confirming the venue for this year.  Work is starting soon on new events, booking guests, taking feedback from 2011 onboard and the dozens of other tasks that make up a convention.

On a public level, we have just launched our early bird pre-reg!  For €25 you can grab a weekend pass and a t-shirt.  The early bird will be open until the end of May when it switches to general pre-reg for €30 with a t-shirt.  On the door prices will be €30 for a weekend and €20 for a day pass.  So we’ve nudged the prices up a little bit but the things we can do with the extra income will make your head spin, I promise!

Alright!  Keep your eyes open on the anime channels for one hell of an announcement real soon – it could be the highlight of the year.  I shall say no more!

Until then,
Mark

Films like THE GREY are something of a rare animal, if you’ll pardon the pun. They are completely without pretension and completely unadorned. They are straight, to the point and sincere. Too often, films that have a sparse plot are given to becoming overbearing and superfluous. Screenwriters and directors feel the need to force dialogue, exposition and create scenes and incidents so as to feel that there is more to it. The trend in cinema of late is one of economy.  Looking at DRIVE, TINKER TAILOR SOLIDER SPY and SHAME, directors are beginning to see that there doesn’t need to be any more than is absolutely necessary in order to forward the plot – regardless of how sparse it may be.

Liam Neeson is a rough-neck oil worker in Alaska. Suffering from depression and contemplating suicide, he heads for home alongside a group of blue-collar workers. The plane crash-lands the frozen wastes with few survivors. The rag-tag bunch band together under Neeson’s guidance and set out to find civilisation. Hunting them is a pack of wolves. Much like the shark in JAWS, little is seen and more is implied with these ruthless hunters. One by one, their numbers begin to dwindle as the elements begin to take hold and the wolves begin to encircle them. The supporting cast is made up of Dermot Mulroney, Frank Grillo and Dallas Roberts, each of whom put in decent performances. They are, of course, swallowed whole by Neeson who is the pillar of strength for both the group and the film itself. It’s almost baffling to think that the role was initially going to be given to Bradley Cooper – the role has Neeson all over it. Rough, pragmatic and foul-mouthed, nobody but him could pull off lines like “I’m going to start beating the shit out of you in the next five seconds” and make it seem utterly convincing.

Joe Carnahan, who previously directed the underrated NARC and the somewhat bland A-TEAM, makes good use of the Alaskan landscape. Varying between handheld and stationary, wide-angle shots of the snow-hewn mountains, you can literally feel the cold permeating out of the screen and biting you in the face. As well, the use of wolves as primary antagonists isn’t necessarily inspired, but it’s done well. As mentioned, it borrows from the JAWS school of thinking; allowing the viewer to fill in the gaps and allow them seem bigger than they actually are. That’s not to say that it’s completely left to the imagination. Some scenes are incredibly visceral and gory, particularly the crash-landing scene. The sound design is very well done. There is no peace in the wilderness; if it’s no screaming, howling wind, it’s the laboured howls of the wolves that are stalking them day and night. The smash cuts between the two serve to show the very real threat the men face at every possible turn. The dialogue isn’t necessarily laced with wit and charm – they’re blue-collar men and it’s blue-collar language throughout. The rare, few moments of respite do manage to flesh out the characters and give a deeper insight why they’re struggling to survive. It is, of course, Neeson’s story throughout and the men around him are personifications of his feelings – be it loss of family, recklessness or hope.

What the film lacks for is pacing and style. With a group being hunted by an enemy, you’re aware of the fact that it’s a waiting game. They’ll be picked off – one at a time. Where THE GREY falters is that there’s no real feeling of them surviving. It feels as though you’re simply waiting for them to die. That may be the tone Joe Carnahan was going for, but if it was, it’s something of a letdown. The film’s relentless onslaught of nature and its complete inhumanity does becoming tiring. Again, that may be what they are going for – to wear down the viewer. And, admittedly, it works. You do feel worn after watching the film; it’s a hard slog to get through. Liam Neeson is the central focus of this film and such is his weight that he can carry this across his shoulders with relative ease. However, it’s unfortunate in that he has to do it alone and doesn’t get all that much help from the supporting cast. There’s one final point about the film that rankled. The film seems to vary wildly between relying on spirituality and faith to get them through and outright pragmatism and reality. Again, this may be intentional on the part of the screenplay, but one would think they’d dismiss one so as to focus on the other. Instead, it slides between the two and does lose of the grit the film has. Overall, a decent film – but lacks an edge. One final note – there’s an after credits sting that’s worth staying in your seat for – if for no other reason that it gives something along the lines of closure.

DROP-D RATING: 6 / 10

Henry Rollins isn’t a man of few words; he’s a man of many.  He’s onstage at 8:30pm sharp in a near-sellout Vicar Street venue.  He waves, takes the mic from its stand, wraps the cable once around his hand and begins talking while moving the stand out of the way.  Some two hours and 45 minutes later and Rollins is in the exact same spot his grip having not changed once, too busy talking at a thousand miles an hour to take a break for a leg stretch, water, or even a ten second breather.

And that’s Rollins in a confusing nutshell – from his early days as Black Flag’s fourth and final singer, through the Rollins Band, his dozen plus published books, decades of acting work and radio DJing to his more recent endeavours with National Geographic and his endless globetrotting, Rollins never does anything as you’d expect.

In celebration of his 50^th year on the planet, Rollins brought out a few stories from the vault, including reasons why you shouldn’t stage dive and his fantastic one and only meeting with Dennis Hopper in the late 80s.  From there he talked about working with his personal assistant, affectionately known as The Demon, while occasionally slamming his foot down over the American political system.

What’s of most interest at a Rollins spoken word show, and what is probably most surprising from a casual observer’s viewpoint, is his endless and intense travelogue.  Rollins spoke at length about visiting North Korea, Haiti, Vietnam, Tibet and India, all of which he’s been to in the past year.  It’s a deadly mix of laughter and silence-inducing heartbreak; for every hilarious story about a wizened tour guide there’s a story of a soldier standing in a field accurately describing how his friends were killed in front of him.

Mix in some nutty Indian airline rules and the world’s longest moving walkway that brings you into Kim Il-sung’s gigantic mausoleum, and you have a Rollins show – as deep as it is wide-ranging in topics, confusing, enthralling and somehow over oh-so fast.

Nearing a quarter past 11, Rollins says his goodbyes by way of a call to end racism and wars within our lifetime, unhooks his mic, bows and walks offstage.  Rollins is as full-on  as he was 30 years ago in Black Flag; that he’s traded punk noise for spoken word insights only serves to make a more engrossing experience.  Catch him if you can.

When a film has a reputation, it’s incredibly difficult for the marketing to fight it. A troubled production, early reviews – negative press will always dampen the initial response to a film. Of course, there are times when this can work in its favour. With reduced expectations, anything better than what was expected means for a better experience. Let me begin this review by saying JACK & JILL is the worst film I have ever seen in my life. Worse than RED RIDING HOOD. Worse than THE DARKEST HOUR. Worse than FINAL DESTINATION 5. Worse than THE ROOM. Worse than THE STUPIDS – and if you know what that film is, you’re officially old. Worse than literally anything you can think of. However, as an advertisement, it is brilliant. Yes, you read that correctly – an advertisement.

The wafer-thin plot is as follows: Jack (Adam Sandler) is the head of an advertising agency. It’s Christmas. He’s got to sign Al Pacino – yes, really – to do a Dunkin’ Donuts commercial or the agency goes under. His twin sister, Jill (Adam Sandler), is arriving for the holidays. Al Pacino becomes interested in Jill. Escapades follows. That’s it. Now – on to why this is the most brilliant piece of advertising I have ever seen. This film is wall-to-wall product placement. I mean, literally, it’s an hour-and-a-half long commercial for Coca-Cola, Royal Carribean and Dunkin’ Donuts. I am not fucking kidding. A scene takes place in the cinema? What are they all drinking? Coca-Cola. The popcorn labels are all facing out so you can see the logo. They’re planning to go on a week-long cruise? With who? Royal Carribean. In fact, the set-up for that scene is literally like one of their advertisements. A host looks square into the lens and says, “Welcome to Royal Carribean” – just like in the ads – and then gives a good three minutes of footage to the cruise ship. And you know why this works so well as an advertisement? Because I was watching this scene – replete with fun activities like rock-climbing, a pool on the ship, bars – and thinking, ‘Hey, fuck – I should totally look into doing a cruise at some stage.’ IT ACTUALLY FUCKING WORKED. And then, it hit me. It hit me so hard in the brain, I nearly collapsed off my chair. It was so ingenious, so brilliantly simple, you wonder why it hasn’t been done before.  My guard was down. I was in a darkened cinema, during a film, and I was being shown an advertisement. And it worked. It crossed over my skeptic barriers and got into my brain.

Any regular cinemagoer will tell you that there’s, at a minimum, twenty solid minutes of advertising before you actually get to the film. I’m not talking trailers, mind – which most people can stomach with a reasonable amount of goodwill. I’m talking advertisements with Liv Tyler’s deadened gaze, extolling the virtues of shampoo and how it revitalised her flagging career. Whenever I go to the cinema as a regular punter, I make a point of holding back at least ten minutes after the programmed start. I am paying cash money for entertainment, not advertisements. But JACK & JILL is so insidious, it blatantly crowbars them into the film.

This film is frightening on so many levels. Film-making is an expensive art; nobody denies this. Directors don’t always get their way and have to compromise on certain things. It could be cast, it could special effects or locations and so on. And yes, unfortunately, sometimes they have to include product placement. We accept it as a necessary evil. You may argue – and I’d agree with you – that if a film is of quality, it won’t need these things. The film’s worthy of being made without these entanglements. And that’s true. But, the unfortunate reality is is that money is drying up in cinemas and in order to make it a profitable business for producers and studios, avenues that are unseemly have to be explored. And, like I said, we the public accept it. We accept it because we want the film to be made, we take it in stride and forgive them for the sake of the quality of the story and so forth. What makes this film is so frightening is that there was absolutely no quality to be gleaned from this at all. This film was, as RedLetterMedia assiduously pointed out, something closer to ‘an embezzlement scheme’. By the way, if you have twenty minutes to spare, go watch their review – it does a far better job of articulating how awful this film is than I ever can.

JACK & JILL is everything that is wrong with cinema today. The film has absolutely no redeeming qualities. It is recycled and harvested – if you’ve seen any of Adam Sandler’s previous films, you’ve seen this one too. Adam Sandler proves he has absolutely no fucking morals whatsoever and ranks now as this critic’s most hated and despicable actor ever. Yes, he beats Robert Pattinson. You wouldn’t catch Edward Cullen doing this ham-fisted shit, let me tell you. Katie Holmes is a non-entity. To waste my effort by giving her performance any mention would serve no purpose. We come to the true villain of this film – Al Pacino. I love HEAT. Anyone who knows me personally knows that it is my favourite film of all time, that I harp and proselytise about it constantly and that I regard it as the single greatest piece of cinematic art ever. Al Pacino is one of the main stars in this film. Therefore, I am now going on record as saying HEAT is no longer my favourite film. Why? Because Al Pacino has ruined any goodwill I had towards him with this shit. He sings and dances about Dunkin’ Donuts at the end of the film. Yes, really. Al Pacino, Michael Corleone, Vincent Hanna, Ricky Roma, Tony Montana – is singing – about fucking donuts. I get that, when an actor reaches a certain age and has completed his goals, he can now do roles than don’t necessarily tax him all that much. He can lampoon himself and his previous roles. I understand that completely. I may not necessarily like it, but I get it. This is not that. This is Al Pacino saying, “I don’t give a fuck, pay me my money.”

This film will not be rated by Drop-d because it is not a film. It’s an advertisement. I urge you personally to never watch this tripe, ever. If you do, they’ll win. They’ll keep putting more and more product placement into films because, hey, it fucking worked this time. People swallowed this shit whole and didn’t bat an eyelid about it. If you’re OK with watching hammered shit for an hour and a half, go see this film. Otherwise, consign this to a darkened corner, never to see the light of day.  Do not pay money to see this film.

DROP-D RATING: N/A

So, to summarise the debate on Sean Sherlock‘s legislation a few minutes ago: opposing points were brought up by independent and FG TDs. They were made tenuously but effectively regards the ambiguity of the language of the statement. Sherlock then parroted UPC vs. EMI for the umpteenth time, before expressing his desire to “engage” people on the topic… before stating his intent to pass it this month without any engagement.

Without a debate in Oireachtas, during which clarifications can be made; or for that matter, the promised meeting with music media and copyright holders, or even a speech made available for reference to the public, it should be obvious to even the spoon-fed of music and media traditionalists what exactly is going on here.

STOP SOPA Ireland. Sign it.

Garage-rock veterans The Grunts and electro duo Versives have in recent times, made unlikely gigging buddies, exchanging support slots and various other engagements.

The two bands team up again tomorrow night at the Cruiscin to kick off their 2012, with the Grunts having just released a new EP and Versives coming to life after a brief break following a number of singles. Versives’ new album Prussian Blushes is due shortly, and since scaling their live show back, have focused more on the ambient aspect of their setlist to sometimes-chilling effect.

Tomorrow night, An Cruiscin Lan, five euro in.

The Grunts and Versives. €5.

A new year brings new tunes, and Claire O’Regan, aka Spill and Ambience, has dug up a treasure trove of Cork music from new artists and old. Eclectic business as ever, the line-up is a quality soupcon of electronics and hardcore/alternative, all for the benefit of the listening public.

If you’re a Cork band or artist, looking for airplay, mail rebelrevolutions@mail.com with information. Music submissions are welcome, on WAV and CD only.

Spill – Rebel Revolutions (Cork) #14 – Jan2012 | Mixcloud – Re-think radio.