Reviews

Doyle Bramhall – Fitchburg Street

Stevie Ray's soul brother still going strong

Joan Armatrading – Lovers Speak

Mature collection of new songs from pioneering '70s singer-songwriter

Cursive – The Ugly Organ

Concept album about sexuality from Nebraska quintet

Blitzkrieg Flop

Flaky, star-studded homage to the late, great Joey, Dee Dee and Da Brudders

The Human League

The first two albums from Sheffield's poppiest electro pioneers, now remastered

Roy Ayers – Destination Motherland: The Roy Ayers Anthology

Definitive two-CD, 33-track compilation of jazz-funk vibraphonist's finest moments

Elling

Spacey favourite has plenty of low-key charm

I Am Sam

Sean Penn has done many good things, and none of them can be found in this sentimental guff. As Sam, he's an autistic who, with the help of saintly lawyer Michelle Pfeiffer, tries to prove he's a fit father to his daughter. It's manipulative, dishonest, and wreaks carnage on The Beatles' songbook. Penn was Oscar-nominated. You have to laugh.

Dinner Rush

Danny Aiello dominates this ensemble drama as the weary owner of an Italian restaurant in New York's Tribeca, caught between mobsters and his son's desire to transform the place into a chiceatery. Director (and restaurateur) Bob Giraldi keeps things hustling between tables, but cranks up the pace in the kitchens. A grittier companion to Stanley Tucci's gastro-porn classic Big Night. Tasty.

The spaghetti western was flagging by 1970 when Enzo Barboni gave it a spoof shot in the arm with this breezy global smash and its sequel—now a one-disc double bill. Terence Hill plays the eponymous drifter with a lightning draw and an appetite for beans; Bud Spencer is his bear-like half-brother, Bambino, who dispatches opponents by thumping them on the head; a laid-back but lethal Laurel & Hardy favouring slapstick over ultraviolence.
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