monster


Artist: Various

Album Title: Transformers: Dark of the Moon – The Album

Record Label: Reprise Records

Rating: ★½☆☆☆

Review by: Bill Jones

Just in time for the latest Michael Bay CGI/explosion extravaganza, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Reprise Records released Transformers: Dark of the Moon – The Album, or, as it would be title if being totally honest, Transformers: Songs Maybe Loosely Associated with the Movie. As the back of the case proudly proclaims/admits, “a number of tracks may not be contained in the film.” Either way, they are available now in three formats. (more…)

monster


Title: Super 8

Directed by: J.J. Abrams

Written by: J.J. Abrams

Starring: Joel Courtney, Ryan Lee, Zach Mills, Riley Griffiths, Gabriel Basso, Kyle Chandler, Elle Fanning

Studio: Paramount Pictures

Rating: ★★★★☆

Review by: Bill Jones

When Steven Spielberg was in his absolute prime of blockbuster filmmaking, he took children in films like E.T. and Jurassic Park and put them in situations way over their heads, fantastic situations that played on our extraordinary imaginations as children, turning them into realities more bombastic than seemingly anyone else could have ever created.

Others followed suit with the likes of Goonies and Gremlins, creating the classics of a certain generation, movies that with seeming ease tapped into the very core of the childhood experience and turned it into something beyond our wildest dreams. Super 8 (produced by Spielberg), is for all intents and purposes J.J. Abrams’ (Lost, Star Trek) take on a Spielberg classic, and while it may not quite hit the mark, it’s damn entertaining in its attempt. (more…)