Showing posts with label guilty pleasure. Show all posts
Showing posts with label guilty pleasure. Show all posts

14 March 2012

Film: 'Priest' (2011)

Q: Is it good?
A: No.
Q: Is it predictable, derivative, poorly scripted, and full of obviously fake special effects?
A: Yes.
Q: Do I love it?
A: ...Yes.

Okay, so the acting is wooden, the dialogue is bland, the story is...thin, to say the least, and the critics hated it. But it's fun! The unconvincing but spooky theocratic post-apocalypse setting is a thoroughly enjoyable piece of chilling escapist fantasy. The monochromatic desertified wastelands are quite beautiful despite being so obviously computer-generated, and the solar-powered bikes the characters race across the sands on at ridiculously high speeds are really quite cool. Oh, yeah, and it always makes me happy when movie vampires are grotesquely portrayed as slimy, insectoid, eyeless, cave-dwelling monsters rather than sparkly undead noblemen. These vamps are definitely not sexy, unless you have a massive thing for drippy grey slime. I suppose they'll never make a sequel to this film, but I really hope I'm wrong!




24 January 2012

Record: Kings of Leon 'Youth & Young Manhood' (2003)

If you can explain to me why I feel guilty about loving this record, I'll take you out for ice cream*. Seriously, I will! I couldn't begin to tell you why, but I have to admit that Kings of Leon fall squarely into the category of bands I wouldn't want my friends to know I like. Which is totally stupid, because this catchy, raucous little record is a hell of a good time, and one has cheered me up rather a lot during the past week or so. I do find it a little off-putting that singer Caleb F. sounds so astonishingly, incoherently hammered - like he's maybe swigging some really terrible Southern beer every time he stops singing to 'take a breath' - but his style does fit the music, and the music is really pretty decent.

Favourite tracks: 'Happy Alone' (the sheer quantity of madcap drunken glee is irresistible), 'Joe's Head' (I LOVE Jared F.'s slidy, melodic bassline on this weirdly cheery murder ditty), and the menacingly groovy 'Holy Roller Novocaine'.




*next time we hang out. Sorry if that takes a while to happen, but I'm rarely in your part of the world...