The Warrior's Way.

I saw this movie last week: twice. Cowboys vs Ninjas--how can it fail?

Despite being marketed as an action film (and there's lots of action), most of the middle part of the movie is a mixture of introspective drama and love story. The last 30 minutes is non-stop mayhem though.

K.K. Downing out of Priest!

On the eve of their farewell tour, Judas Priest has confirmed that KK Downing has retired from the band and will not be participating in the "Epitaph" tour. Suitably sincere best wishes have been issued by both sides, but you have to wonder why Downing, who has been with the band throughout their history, would quit when the end is in sight.

Not a lot of details, but the story can be found here:

CANOE -- JAM! Music - Artists - Judas Priest : K.K. Downing quits Judas Priest

Here's more detail here:

http://rocknewsdesk.com/world-news/downing-i-couldnt-work-with-priest-any-longer/1429/

The Mechanic: Trailer

This is the first movie of 2011 I'm looking forward too.  Jason Statham in a remake of my favourite Charles Bronson flick--promising....


The Mechanic Trailer
Uploaded by teasertrailer. - Watch feature films and entire TV shows.

2010 In Memoriam

As always, the saddest part of the year is the annual list of the fallen.  The Etherverse lost a few heroes this year.  We fondly remember the following:


Peter Steele: Bassist for Type-O Negative
Frank Franzetta-Fantasy Artist
Ronnie James Dia-one of the THE voices of Metal
Dennis Hopper- Actor and professional badass
Dino De Laurentiis: Producer of some of the best awful movies ever.
Leslie Neilsen - Canadian Actor

Holiday Programming.

Since this year Xmas falls squarely on the weekend, in addition to my having to work my wage-slave job that day, I've decided to go with the majority at the station and have a repeat broadcast.  The same goes for New Year's Eve.

Have yourselves a happy and above all SAFE holiday season.  A Merry, Metal Xmas to all!

R,I.P. Ingrid Pitt (1937-2010)

Ingrid Pitt, Hammer film's favourite heroine, has died aged 73 in south London. The Polish-born actor, right, who survived imprisonment in a concentration camp during the second world war, found fame as the blood-splattered, often blouseless star of films such as Countess Dracula, and The Vampire Lovers

The Guardian, among others, did a nice little tribute

Another tribute, slightly more detailed.

I want one of these...

I don't know who Mr. Soles is, but he's one talented SOB, as demonstrated by the Lovecraft inspired Carnivian Mask.  I would happily hang this on my wall.


Carnivean Mask by ~MrSoles on deviantART

Jim Clench (1949-2010) R.I.P.

Jim Clench, best known as the bassist for April Wine, has died of lung cancer at the age of 61. Clench replaced original bassist Jim Henman after April Wine's debut album, and played with them until 1975.  In 1978 he joined BTO, appearing on two albums with them.  Rejoining April Wine in 1992, he stayed with them until late 2006 before resigning again. Clench died of lung cancer on Nov. 2. According to bandmate Brian Greenaway, funeral services are expected to be held in St. Johns, Newfoundland sometime next week.

Jim Clench was the writer of April Wine's classic song "Oowatanite", which we often play on the show and which was a crowd favourite throughout their career.

Burke And Hare Trailer

The upcoming comedy "Burke And Hare" looks like it's going to be a doozy.  Check out the trailer.

James Bond--The Best And The Worst

Okay, so I've been sick as a dog most of the week, and I don't know whether it's the medication, or the boredom, or the exhaustion, but for some reason my mind chose this week to think about James Bond movies.  I thought it might be cool to make my personal list of the best and worst that the canon has to offer.  Despite a few givens, Bond flicks generally give rise to intense argument--pro--Moore, pro-Connery, the odd pro-Dalton heretic etc.  So here's my list, in no particular order:

1. Goldfinger: Oh like I have to explain this one at all.  Next...
2. Live And Let Die: The opening scenes gave me nightmares when I was a kid. This one manages to be cooly  retro without being too dated.
3. You Only Live Twice: Hated this the first time I saw it, now it's one of my favourite.  For a Bond movie, it's very quiet, understated and restrained. But it has a very strong story, and that's why it works.
4. On Her Majesty's Secret Service: George Lazenby's singular and much-maligned entry into the series is unfairly snubbed, I think.  Despite Lazenby's somewhat wooden performance, OHMSS actually represents one of the strongest scripts ever for a Bond film.  Plus Diana Rigg looks ravishing, as always.
5. For Your Eyes Only: The hidden gem of the Moore era.  Sure it's a tawdry remake of Thunderball.  Sure it has that really cheesy theme song.  But it is also a compilation of everything good about a Bond flick--the underwater stuff, the skiing stuff, the humour, the action, the gadgets.  It just works, and yet everyone forgets about it.  Shame, really.
6. Diamonds Are Forever: This is Connery's campiest outing, and one of the most fun.  The two assassins are just a joy to watch throughout.  Along with Thunderball, DAF served as a template for many furure Bond efforts
7. The World Is Not Enough: The movie where Pearce Brosnan hit his stride. Goldeneye took itself too seriously, Die Another Die didn't take itself seriously enough, TWINW struck just the right balance.
8. From Russia With Love: Dr. No may have been the first, but FRWL was the true start of the franchise.
9. Thunderball: So good, they've recycled it time after time after time.
10. The Man With The Golden Gun: This one's all about the bad guy.  Christopher Lee manages to exude both class and menace in this otherwise light bit of fluff.

And the five worst:

1. A View To A Kill: A perfect example of everything that was wrong with filmmaking in the 'eighties. Shallow, lazy, cheesy and sloppy.  I read an article in Cinefantastique where the writers basically admitted writing a crappy movie to sabotage Roger Moore. It made me mad at the time.  That being said, I still do enjoy watching this one from time to time.  It's bad, but it's still fun
2. Dr. No: Maybe I'm a heretic, but I find that the first Bond movie hasn't aged well.  It's dated, slow-paced and to be brutally frank, boring as hell.
3. Quantum Of Solace: I'd give detail reasons why this is so bad, but to be honest after the initially interesting parkour chase at the beginning, I lasted about 15 minutes before turning it off and therefore have never seen the whole thing. That pretty much sums it up.
4. Octopussy: It's a lot of fun, and it's still great to watch.  The reason why it's on the "worsts" list is because there are so many continuity errors, technical gaffes and just plain sloppy filmmaking that it's obvious that the director didn't give a shit.
5. Moonraker: remaking The Spy Who Loved me immediately after The Spy Who Loved Me was just an insult to the fans.  It's not a bad movie, per se, but for chrissakes at least they had the decency to leave gap of a few films before churning out Thunderball clones

You'll notice that Timothy Dalton's outings don't make either list.  That's because it wouldn't be really fair to judge them because Dalton was never really allowed to play Bond--The Living Daylights was basically written for Bond as portrayed by Moore, and License To Kill wasn't a Bond movie in any real sense of the term.