Misconceived pairing of Adam Sandler and Jack Nicholson, but still curiously enjoyable and often funny. Sandler underplays (though not to the extent he did in Punch-Drunk Love) as a geek wrongly diagnosed with rage problems; Jack's the quack assigned to set him straight. Comic twist being: Jack's borderline deranged. While some scenes misfire, there's usually a weird (intentional or not) tension between the two, each straining to pull off this unlikely marriage. They just about do.
Beginning as an eye-popping cavalcade of dismemberment, cannibalism and pigs gorging on human offal, this quickly turns into an occasionally amusing attack on the critics of director Lucio Fulci's work, with Fulci himself starring as a horror director wondering whether extended exposure to fake gore has turned him psycho-killer. Demented.
Dark, hugely inventive '93 animation from Tim Burton, possibly much too spooky for kids (or probably not, the sick little psychos). The Pumpkin King of Halloween tries to co-opt Christmas; the voices of Catherine O'Hara, Pee-Wee Herman and other disreputable types ooh and aah. Dazzling, macabre and faintly mad, an Oscar nominee for visual effects.
Never released theatrically in the UK, this operatic epic about a Korean peace delegation struggling to make it home from remotest China encompasses swordplay, romance, brooding landscapes and thousands of extras, yet doesn't quite add up to the crowd-pleaser it ought to be. Zhang Ziyi of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon fame is on hand as a princess who hooks up with the mostly Korean cast.
Back in January, Arthur Lee sold out two nights at the Royal Festival Hall. They were magical shows, Lee performing '67's classic Forever Changes in its entirety, complete with horns and strings. Some complained on the night about the sound balance, but there's no problem with the quality here. Lee's in celebratory mood, as he and his backing band LA psychedelicists Baby Lemonade storm through classics like "Bummer In The Summer" in a blur of brass and strings. Superlative stuff.
In June 1988, Depeche Mode took their stadium techno roadshow to ground-breaking heights by filling the 65,000-capacity Pasadena Rose Bowl near LA. Captured by the legendary rock-doc maestro DA Pennebaker and his long-term partner Chris Hegedus, the show became a fine concert film, incorporating reality TV-style coverage of fans travelling to the gig. Repackaged with extra footage, audio commentaries and updated interviews, it's a handsome historical record of Wagnerian electro-pop and hair gel abuse.
In January 2002, Brian Wilson and a nine-piece band, including The Wondermints and Carl Wilson-alike Jeffrey Foskett, performed The Beach Boys' 1966 album Pet Sounds in its entirety, and in sequence, over six nights at London's Royal Festival Hall. And now the best of those concerts have been remixed and remastered in 5.1 surround sound. This means you can now own the original LP in mono and stereo, the Pet Sounds Sessions box set, the Pet Sounds Live CD from 2002, and the Pet Sounds Live DVD!
You can't move these days for quality American TV dramas—Six Feet Under, The Badge, Boomtown, 24, the increasingly amazing Alias—so it says a lot for the enduring genius of David Chase's Mob epic that it remains the most compelling of the current generation of TV imports. Series Four was as frightening and funny as anything that preceded it, and was especially notable for its treatment of the darkening relationship between James Gandolfini and Edie Falco. The episode where Tony snuffs Ralphy is unbelievable.
The controversial director of Kissed, Lynne Stopkewich, throws the fearlessly versatile Molly Parker into another harrowing role. Here she's running a seedy Nowheresville motel, selling her body to guests and drifters. She wants out, and the latest stranger may have the ticket. But in this director's world, nothing's tender and most things are brutal. Mesmeric and coldly Lynch-like.
