All Reviews A-Z

Here is a thing which I will plan to update each time I add a new review. This should make it easy for anyone who is sufficiently depraved enough to enjoy what I write and craves more. There isn’t a huge amount yet, but I do have a tonne of reviews written years ago for IMDB which I haven’t posted here yet, along with all my other Album reviews for Amazon. This list will grow. For now, click on anything you like!

Movie Reviews

#Alive – Il Cho

11/22/63 – Bridget Carpenter

2001 Maniacs – Tim Sullivan

300: Rise Of An Empire – Noam Murro

A Dark Song – Liam Gavin

A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night – Ana Lily Amirpour

A Quiet Place – John Krasinski

A Hard Day – Kim Seong Hun

A Mighty Wind – Christopher Guest

A Nightmare On Elm Street – Wes Craven

A Tale Of Two Sisters – Kim Ji Woon

A Wish For Christmas – Christie Will Wolf

Aftermath – Elliott Lester

After Midnight – Jeremy Gardner/Christian Stella

After The Silence – Fred Gerber

Airwolf – Donald Bellisario

Akira – Katsuhiro Otomo

Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa – Declan Lowney

Alien – Ridley Scott

Aliens – James Cameron

Alien 3 – David Fincher

Annihilation – Alex Garland

Arachnophobia – Frank Marshall

Assault On Precinct 13 – John Carpenter

Attack Of The Adult Babies – Dominic Brunt

August Rush – Kirsten Sheridan

AWOL – Sheldon Lettich

Bad Lieutenant – Abel Ferrara

Bait – Kimble Rendall

Bangkok Dangerous – The Pang Brothers

Baskin – Can Evrenol

Battle Royale – Kinji Fukasaku

Beavis And Butthead – Mike Judge

Beetlejuice – Tim Burton

Bedevilled – Jang Cheol-soo

Benny And Joon – Jeremiah S Chechik

Big Driver – Mikael Salomon

Big Trouble In Little China – John Carpenter

Bill And Ted’s Bogus Journey – Peter Hewitt

Bill And Ted’s Excellent Adventure – Stephen Herek

Bill And Ted Face The Music – Dean Parisot

Birdy – Alan Parker

Black Coal, Thin Ice – Diao Yinan

Blair Witch – Adam Wingard

Blood Father – Jean Francois Richet

Blood Fest – Owen Egerton

Bloodsport – Newt Arnold

Bodyguards And Assassins – Teddy Chan

Body Shots – Michael Christofer

Body Snatchers – Abel Ferrara

Bordello Of Blood – Gilbert Adler

Braindead – Peter Jackson

Brooklyn Rules – Michael Corrente

Brother – Takeshi Kitano

Bruiser – George A Romero

Cam – Daneil Goldhaber

Cannibal – Manuel Martin Cuenca

Captain America: The First Avenger – Joe Johnston

Carne – Gaspar Noe

Cell – Tod Williams

Chasing Amy – Kevin Smith

Chasing Sleep – Michael Walker

Children Of The Corn – Fritz Kiersch

Christmas At Castle Hart – Stefan Scaini

Christmas In Rome – Ernie Barbarash

Cockneys Vs Zombies – Matthias Hoene

Come And See – Elem Kilmov

Commando – Mark L Lester

Conan The Barbarian – John Milius

Creepshow 2 – Michael Gornick

Cronos – Guillermo Del Toro

Cursed – Wes Craven

Cyborg – Albert Pyun

Dark City – Alex Proyas

Dark Tide – John Stockwell

Darlin – Pollyanna Macintosh

Dawn Of The Dead – Zack Snyder

Day of The Dead – George A Romero

Daylight – Rob Cohen

Dead Of Night (1977) – Dan Curtis

Dead Snow – Tommy Wirkola

Death Sentence – James Wan

Death Wish 2 – Michael Winner

Demons – Lamberto Bava

Desperado – Robert Rodriguez

Dial M For Murder – Alfred Hitchcock

Die Another Day – Lee Tamahori

Dirty Pretty Things – Stephen Frears

Disturbia – D.J. Caruso

Dobermann – Jan Kounen

Dogma – Kevin Smith

Donnie Brasco – Mike Newell

Don’t Blink – Travis Oates

Don’t Tell Mom The Babysitter’s Dead – Stephen Herek

Double Impact – Sheldon Lettich

Dr No – Terence Young

Dream Warriors – Chuck Russell

Drug War – Johnie To

Dumb And Dumber – The Farrelly Bros

Dumplin‘ – Anne Fletcher

Eaten Alive – Tobe Hooper

El Mariachi – Robert Rodriguez

Escape From Sobibor – Jack Gold

Escape Plan – Mikael Hafstrom

Embodiment Of Evil – Jose Marins

Everyone’s Hero – Christopher Reeve, Colin Brady, Daniel St. Pierre

Evil Dead – Fede Alvarez

Excision – Richard Bates Jr

Extinction – Miguel Angel Vivas

Family For Christmas – Amanda Tapping

Fanboys – Kyle Newman

February – Oz Perkins

Final Destination – James Wong

Final Destination 2 – David R Ellis

First Blood – Ted Kotcheff

Fist Of Fury – Bruce Lee

For Your Eyes Only – John Glen

Freddy’s Dead – Rachel Talalay

Freddy’s Revenge – Jack Sholder

Freddy Vs Jason – Ronny Yu

Frenzy – Alfred Hitchcock

Frenzy – Jose Montesinos

Friend Request – Simon Verhoeven

From Russia With Love – Terence Young

Game of Death – Bruce Lee/Robert Clouse

Game Night – John Francis Daley/Jonathan Goldstein

Girls Against Boys – Austin Chick

God Bless America – Bobcat Goldthwaite

Goldeneye – Martin Campbell

Goldfinger – Guy Hamilton

Goodnight Mommy – Veronika Franz/Severin Fiala

Grave Encounters – The Vicious Brothers

Grave Encounters 2 – John Poliquin

Gravity – Alfonso Cuaron

Halloween – John Carpenter

Halloween 2 and 3 – Rick Rosenthal/Tommy Lee Wallace

Halloween 4 – Dwight H Little

Halloween 5 – Dominique Othenin Gerard

Hard-Boiled – John Woo

Hard Target – John Woo

Hansel And Gretal – Yim Phil-Sung

Heartbreakers – David Mirkin

Heli – Amat Escalante

Hellboy – Guillermo Del Toro

Hellions – Bruce Macdonald

Home Alone – Chris Columbus

Honor And Glory – Godfrey Ho

Horrible Bosses – Seth Gordon

Ichi – Fumihiko Sori

Ichi The Killer – Takashi Miike

I Am The Pretty Thing That Lives In The House – Oz Perkins

I’m Not A Serial Killer – Billy O’Brien

Inoperable – Christopher Laurence Chapman

Into The Mirror – Kim Sung Ho

I Really Hate My Job – Oliver Parker

It Comes At Night – Trey Edward Shults

It’s All About Love – Thomas Vinterberg

Jaws – Steven Spielberg

Jaws 2 – Jeannot Szwarc

Jaws 3 – Joe Alvez

Jaws 4 – Joseph Sargent

John Wick – Chad Stahelski/David Leitch

Jurassic Park – Steven Spielberg

Ju-On Black Ghost – Mari Asato

Ju-On White Ghost – Ryuta Miyake

Kickboxer – Mark DiSalle/David Worth

Kids – Larry Clark

Kill Bill Vol 1 – Quentin Tarantino

King Kong – Merian C Cooper/Ernest B Schoedsack

Kingdom Of Heaven – Ridley Scott

Knock Knock – Eli Roth

Lady Bird – Greta Gerwig

Leatherface – Maury & Bustillo

Leon – Luc Besson

Lifeboat – Alfred Hitchcock

Last Action Hero – John McTiernan

Life – Daniel Espinosa

Live And Let Die – Guy Hamilton

Loaded – Alan Pao

Lost Highway – David Lynch

Love On Safari – Leif Bristow

Macbeth – Orson Welles

Manuscripts Don’t Burn – Mohammed Rousalof

Megan Is Missing – Michael Goi

Milius – Joey Figuero

Mortal Kombat – Simon McQoid

Mother’s Day – Darren Lynn Bousman

Mouth To Mouth – Alison Murray

Mr And Mrs Smith – Alfred Hitchcock

My Soul To Take – Wes Craven

Never Sleep Again – Daniel Farrands/Andrew Kach

Night Of The Demons – Kevin S Tenney

Night Of The Living Dead – George A Romero

Nowhere To Run – Robert Harmon

On The Road – Walter Salles

Origin: Spirits Of The Past – Keichi Sugiyama

Outrage – Takeshi Kitano

Out Of The Furnace – Scott Cooper

P2 – Frank Khalfoun

Pandorum – Christian Alvart

Peacock – Michael Lander

Perdita Durango – Alex de la Iglesia

Perlasca – Alberto Negrin

Pieta – Kim Ki Duk

Police Academy 1-7 – Various

Pontypool – Bruce McDonald

Predator 2 – Stephen Hopkins

Priceless – Pierre Salvadori

Pride, Prejudice, And Mistletoe – Don McBrearty

Problem Child – Dennis Dugan

Project X – Nima Nourizadeh

Pyewacket – Adam Macdonald

Q: The Winged Serpent – Larry Cohen

Radius – Caroline Labreche/Steeve Leonard

Raw Deal – John Irvin

Rear Window – Alfred Hitchcock

Re:born – Yuji Shimomura

Red Heat – Walter Hill

Red Sonja – Richard Fleischer

Resident Evil – Paul WS Anderson

Resident Evil 2 – Alexander Witt

Return To Oz – Walter Murch

Rhapsody In August – Akira Kurosawa

Ring – Hideo Nakata

Ring 2 – Hideo Nakata

Ring 0 – Norio Tsuruta

Rings – F.Javier Gutierrez

Rogue – Greg McLean

Room – Lenny Abrahamson

Room 237 – Rodney Ascher

Rope – Alfred Hitchcock

Rosewood Lane – Victor Salva

Rubber – Quentin Dupeiux

Rust And Bone – Jacques Audiard

Sabotage – David Ayer

Sanctum – Alister Grierson

Scream – Wes Craven

Scream 3 – Wes Craven

Seeking A Friend For The End Of The World – Lorene Scafaria

Seul Contre Tous – Gaspar Noe

Seven Samurai – Akira Kurosawa

Shanghai Kiss – David Ren/Ken Kernwiser

She Dies Tomorrow – Amy Seimetz

Signs – M Night Shyamalan

Society – Brian Yuzna

Someone’s Watching Me – John Carpenter

Sophie Scholl – The Final Days – Marc Rothemond

Spiderman 2 – Sam Raimi

Staunton Hill – Cameron Romero

Still Walking – Hirokazu Koreeda

Street Trash – Jim Munro

Stripes – Ivan Reitman

Street Hawk – Virgil W Vogel

Suicide Club – Sion Sono

Sukiyaki Western Django – Takeshi Miike

Survive Style 5 + – Gen Sekiguchi

Tag – Sion Sono

Tears Of The Sun – Antoine Fuqua

Ted – Seth MacFarlane

The 39 Steps – Alfred Hitchcock

The Art Of War – Christian Deguay

Thelma And Louise – Ridley Scott

The Birds – Alfred Hitchcock

The Blair Witch Project – Daniel Myrick, Eduardo Sanchez

The Boss Of It All – Lars Von Trier

The Clovehitch Killer – Duncan Skilies

The Craft – Andrew Fleming

The Crow – Alex Proyas

The Detective – Oxide Pang

The Devil’s Rain – Robert Fuest

The Divide – Xavier Gens

The Driver – Walter Hill

The Empress And The Warriors – Ching Siu Tung

The Evil Dead – Sam Raimi

The Evil Dead 2 – Sam Raimi

The Fifth Element – Luc Besson

The First Men In The Moon – Nathan Juran

The Forest Of Love – Sion Sono

The Ghost And The Darkness – Stephen Hopkins

The Gate – Tibor Takacs

The Gift – Joel Edgerton

The Girl With All The Gifts – Colm McCarthy

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time – Mamoru Hosoda

The Green Inferno – Eli Roth

The Grudge – Takashi Shimazu

The Guest – Adam Wingard

The Happiness Of The Katakuris – Takashi Miike

The Haunting Of Goodnight Lane – Alin Bijan

The Hitcher – Robert Harmon

The House Of The Devil – Ti West

The Idiots – Lars Von Trier

The Innkeepers – Ti West

The Isle – Kim Ki Duk

The Kings Of Summer – Jordan Vogt Roberts

The Last Boy Scout – Tony Scott

The Last Exorcism – Daniel Stamm

The Last Exorcism 2 – Ed Gass-Donnelly

The Last House On The Left – Wes Craven

The Lifeguard – Liz W Garcia

The Man From Earth – Richard Schenkman

The Man Who Knew Too Much – Alfred Hitchcock

The Mannsfield 12 – Craig Ross Jr

The Night Eats The World – Dominique Rocher

The Pact – Nicholas McCarthy

The Password Is Courage – Andrew L Stone

The Perfection – Richard Shepard

The Predator – Shane Black

The Red Squirrel – Julio Medem

The Sand – Isaac Gabaeff

The Secret Life Of Pets – Chris Renaud

The Slumber Party Massacre – Amy Holden Jones

The Storm Warriors – The Pang Brothers

The Stranger – Robert Lieberman

The Stuff – Larry Cohen

The Tortured – Robert Lieberman

The Visit – M Night Shyamalan

The Wailing – Na Hong-jin

The Wisdom Of Crocodiles – Po Chih Leong

The Wisher (Spliced) – Gavin Wilding

The Witch – Robert Eggers

The Windmill Massacre – Nick Jongerius

Train To Busan – Yeon Sang-ho

Triangle – Hark Tsui/Ringo Lam

Trilogy Of Terror – Dan Curtis

Troy: The Odyssey – Tekin Girgin

Tusk – Kevin Smith

Twins – Ivan Reitman

Unbreakable – M Night Shyamalan

Universal Soldier – Roland Emmerich

USS Indianapolis – Mario Van Peebles

V/H/S – Various

V/H/S 2 – Various

Visitor Q – Takashi Miike

Wake In Fright – Ted Kotcheff

Wake Wood – David Keating

Way Of The Dragon – Bruce Lee

We Are What We Are – Jim Mickle

We Are Still Here – Ted Geoghagen

Wes Craven’s New Nightmare – Wes Craven

Winter Soldier – Winterfilm Collective

Wolfcop – Lowell Dean

X – Ti West

Yellowbrickroad – Jessie Holland/Andy Mitton

You Were Never Really Here – Lynne Ramsey

Zombie Creeping Flesh – Bruno Mattei

Zombieland – Ruben Fleischer

TV Reviews

Are You Afraid Of The Dark

Back To School At 35

Breaking Bad

Friends

Game Of Thrones

Gladiators

Neighbours

Saved By The Bell

Strike It Lucky

The League Of Gentlemen

The Walking Dead

Wolf Creek

Wreslemania 34

Music Reviews

11 – Bryan Adams

101 Dalmations – Disney

2020 – Bon Jovi

18 Till I Die – Bryan Adams

3 Feet High And Rising – De La Soul

7800 Farenheit – Bon Jovi

A Celebration Of Endings – Biffy Clyro

A Hard Day’s Night – The Beatles

A Love Supreme – John Coltrane

A Night At The Opera – Queen

Abbey Road – The Beatles

Accessories – The Gathering

Aftermath – The Rolling Stones

Afterwords – The Gathering

Air – Agua De Annique

Aladdin Sane – David Bowie

Alice In Wonderland – Disney

All Things Must Pass – George Harrison

American Life – Madonna

Anti-Icon – Ghostmane

Ascension – John Coltrane

Atomic Jones – Tom Jones

Balls To Picasso – Bruce Dickinson

Beaucoup Of Blues – Ringo Starr

Bedtime Stories – Madonna

Between The Buttons – Rolling Stones

Black Sabbath – Black Sabbath

Black Saint & The Sinner Lady – Charles Mingus

Black Tie White Noise – David Bowie

Blaze Of Glory – Bon Jovi

Blizzard Of Ozz – Ozzy Osbourne

Blood On The Tracks – Bob Dylan

Blood, Sweat, And Tears – Blood, Sweat, and Tears

Blue – Joni Mitchell

Blur – Blur

Bookends – Simon & Garfunkel

Bounce – Bon Jovi

Brave (Part One) – Marillion

Brave (Part Two) – Marillion

British Steel – Judas Priest

Bryan Adams – Bryan Adams

Burning Bridges – Bon Jovi

Cinderella – Disney

Charm School – Roxette

Chromatica – Lady Gaga

Closer – Joy Division

Clutching At Straws (2) – Marillion

Clutching At Straws (1) – Marillion

Conan The Barbarian Soundtrack – Basil Poledouris

Conan The Destroyer Soundtrack – Basil Poledouris

Confessions On The Dancefloor – Madonna

Crash! Boom! Bang! – Roxette

Crush – Bon Jovi

Destination Anywhere – Bon Jovi

Diamond Dogs – David Bowie

Disclosure – The Gathering

Dumb And Dumber Soundtrack – Various

Electronic Sounds – George Harrison

Entroducing – DJ Shadow

Erotica – Madonna

Eternal Atake – Lil Uzi Vert

Everything Is Changing – Anneke Van Giersbergen

Evita – Madonna

Fetch The Bolt Cutters – Fiona Apple

Five O’Clock World – The Vogues

For Sale – The Beatles

Fugazi (1) – Marillion

Fugazi (2) – Marillion

Fulfillingness’ First Finale – Stevie Wonder

Fun And Fancy Free – Disney

Future Nostalgia – Dua Lipa

Genius + Soul = Jazz – Ray Charles

Get Up – Bryan Adams

Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter – Incredible String Band

Hard Candy – Madonna

Harvest Moon – Neil Young

Have A Nice Day – Bon Jovi

Have A Nice Day – Roxette

Heaven And Hell – Black Sabbath

Heaven Or Las Vegas – Cocteau Twins

Head On – Samson

Help! – The Beatles

“Heroes” – David Bowie

Hey Stoopid – Alice Cooper

High Roller – Urchin

Highway To Hell – ACDC

Holy Diver – Dio

Home – The Gathering

Holidays In Eden (1) – Marillion

Holidays In Eden (2) – Marillion

How To Measure A Planet? – The Gathering

Hunky Dory – David Bowie

I’m Breathless – Madonna

I Hear A Symphony – The Supremes

Imagine – John Lennon

Into The Fair – Bryan Adams

In Your Room – Anneke Van Giersbergen

Jagged Little Pill – Alanis Morissette

Jazz Samba – Stan Getz

Jealous Heart – Connie Francis

Joyride – Roxette

Just Like Us – Paul Revere And The Raiders

Keep The Faith – Bon jovi

Ladies Of The Canyon – Joni Mitchell

Lady And The Tramp – Disney

Lazer Guided Melodies – Spiritualized

Leftism – Leftfield

Let It Be – The Beatles

Lets Dance – David Bowie

Life’s Rich Pageant – REM

Lightfoot – Gordon Lightfoot

Like A Prayer – Madonna

Like A Virgin – Madonna

Little Deuce Coupe – The Beach Boys

Live In Europe – Anneke Van Giersbergen

Lodger – David Bowie

Look Sharp – Roxette

Lost Highway – Bon Jovi

Low – David Bowie

Machine Head – Deep Purple

Madame X – Madonna

Madonna – Madonna

Magical Mystery Tour – The Beatles

Mandylion – The Gathering

Manic Street Preachers Live In Belfast – Manic Street Preachers

McCartney – Paul McCartney

MDNA – Madonna

Melody Time – Disney

Miles Of Aisles – Joni Mitchell

Misplaced Childhood (1) – Marillion

Misplaced Childhood (2) – Marillion

Music! – Madonna

My Fair Lady Soundtrack – Various

My Turn – Lil Baby

Never Let Me Down – David Bowie

New Jersey – Bon Jovi

Nighttime Birds – The Gathering

Night On My Side – Gemma Hayes

Nothing Is True And Everything Is Possible – Enter Shikari

Ohms – Deftones

On A Day Like Today – Bryan Adams

Operation Mindcrime – Queensryche

Out Of Our Heads – The Rolling Stones

Our Favourite Shop – The Style Council

Painkiller – Judas Priest

Pearls Of Passion – Roxette

Peter Pan – Disney

Please Please Me – The Beatles

Pin Ups – David Bowie

Pretender – Jackson Browne

Pure Air – Agua De Annique

Ram – Paul McCartney

Ray Of Light – Madonna

Rebel Heart – Madonna

Restless And Wild – Accept

Revolver – The Beatles

Rolling Stones – The Rolling Stones

Rolling Stones 2 – The Rolling Stones

Roll Out The Red Carpet – Buck Owens

Room Service – Roxette

Room Service – Bryan Adams

Rough & Rowdy Ways – Bob Dylan

Rubber Soul – The Beatles

Saludos Amigos – Disney

Satin Pillows & Careless – Bobby Vinton

Savage – Eurythmics

Scary Monsters – David Bowie

Screaming For Vengeance – Judas Priest

Script For A Jester’s Tear (1) – Marillion

Script For A Jester’s Tear (2) – Marillion

Seasons End (2) – Marillion

Seasons End (1) – Marillion

Second Coming – The Stone Roses

Sentimental Journey – Ringo Starr

Set My Heart On Fire Immediately – Perfume Genius

Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band – The Beatles

Shine A Light – Bryan Adams

Shout At The Devil – Motley Crue

Shut Down Vol 2: The Beach Boys

Silver & Gold – ASAP

Sleeping Beauty – Disney

Sleepy Buildings – The Gathering

Slippery When Wet – Bon Jovi

Song To A Seagull – Joni Mitchell

Sounds Of Silence – Simon & Garfunkel

Souvenirs – The Gathering

Space Oddity – David Bowie

Speaking In Tongues – Talking Heads

Spirit – Bryan Adams

Station To Station – David Bowie

Surfer Girl – The Beach Boys

Surfin Safari – The Beach Boys

Surfin USA – The Beach Boys

Tattooed Millionaire – Bruce Dickinson

The Adventures Of Ichabod & Mr Toad – Disney

The Buddha Of Suburbia – David Bowie

The Circle – Bon Jovi

The Orbison Way – Roy Orbison

The Sky Is Crying – Stevie Ray Vaughn

Them Again – Them

These Days – Bon Jovi

This House Is Not For Sale – Bon Jovi

The Man Who Sold The World – David Bowie

The Marshall Mathers LP – Eminem

The Plastic Ono Band – John Lennon

The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust – David Bowie

The Roads Don’t Love You – Gemma Hayes

The Royal Scam – Steely Dan

The Second Album – The Spencer Davis Group

The West Pole – The Gathering

The White Album – The Beatles

Tin Machine – David Bowie/Tin Machine

Tin Machine II – Bowie

Tonight – David Bowie

Tori Amos Live In Belfast – Tori Amos

Transformer – Lou Reed

Tracy Chapman – Tracy Chapman

Travelling – Roxette

True Blue – Madonna

Tubular Bells – Mike Oldfield

Underneath – Code Orange

Ungodly Hour – Chloe X Halle

Urban Hymns – The Verve

Van Halen – Van Halen

Violent Femmes – Violent Femmes

Vulgar Display Of Power – Pantera

Waking Up The Neighbours – Bryan Adams

Wild Life – Wings

With The Beatles – The Beatles

What About Now – Bon Jovi

What’s Going On – Marvin Gaye

What’s Your Pleasure – Jessie Ware

Wonderwall Music – George Harrison

Yellow Submarine – The Beatles

YHLQMDLG – Bad Bunny

You Want It You Got It – Bryan Adams

Young Americans – David Bowie

Youth Novels – Lykke Li

Book Reviews

1000 Zombies – Alex Cox

Atmospheric Disturbances – Rivka Galchen

Catching Fire – Suzanne Collins

Dinosaurs – Navigators

Fang Of The Vampire – Scream Street

Japan Day By Day – Frommers

London 2008 – Time Out

London Free And Dirt Cheap – Frommers

Paris 2009 – Time Out

Play With Colours – The Happets

The Art Of Racing In The Rain – Garth Stein

The Devouring – Simon Holt

The Gargoyle – Andrew Davidson

The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins

The Invention Of Everything Else – Samantha Hunt

The Mayan Prophecies – Gerald Benedict

The Maze Runner – James Dashner

Undead – Kirsty Mckay

Escape Room

Escape Room. Just to clarify, this is a review for Escape Room, not Escape Room, or the other Escape Room. Got it? Good.

That’s right, three movies all released essentially within a year of one another, all of them with a similar premise, all of them confusingly called Escape Room. Why couldn’t the producers have had a conversation and decided which would be called Escape Room, which would be Escape The Room, and which would be Escape? I’ve typed ‘Escape’ so many times now that I’m not sure I’m even spelling it correctly any more, and the Laptop is making a Sticky Keys noise at me.

I devised my own system for remembering which is which – there’s the big budget one which made it to Cinemas on a wide release (and has had a sequel which I’m now calling Escape 2room), there’s the one with Skeet Ulrich, and there’s the other one. This is the big budget one. Having watched all of them, I imagine I’ll get around to reviewing the others at some point. But this is the biggest, and probably the best.

The film starts with our six several characters being given a mysterious puzzle box which, once solved, presents them with an invitation to an Escape Room for the chance to win a big sack of cash. Any right thinking person would begin tingling at this point – spidey sense tingling – and move to another country because this is at best some cultish pyramid scheme and at worst the opening to the latest Saw movie. However, the people are intrigued and enticed by the promise of sudden wealth and meet each other in an anonymous office block. Almost immediately, the game begins but unbeknownst to the players, it’s a game of life or death. They must work together to solve a variety of rooms while possibly discovering why they were brought together, and who is doing this to them.

While the Saw comparisons are apt, and while the film gleefully recalls similar properties such as Cube, it’s a less visceral film. While there are plenty of inventive deaths, it doesn’t approach torture porn and is a much more mainstream type of horror. In many cases these films fall apart or hold together based on how likeable the characters are and how believable the story is. The characters are varied enough and have enough in built conflict to be engaging – there’s the scarred veteran, the gamer nerd, the Wall Street type, the innocent, the normie, the old guy – and while the story is ridiculous the script has the nous to keep everything fairly grounded. Putting aside the wealth and planning involved to develop such a scheme, the story relies less on contrivances than the Saw series. Unlike many films of this ilk, the film continues after the games end as we begin expanding the lore and posing more questions while giving snippets of answers. It’s clear that we’re being set up for a franchise, but like Alice In Borderland and Squid Game if the lore and questions are interesting then I’m happy to see more.

Let us know in the comments what you think of Escape Room!

Best Foreign Film – 1984

Official Nominations: Dangerous Moves. Beyond The Walls. Camila. Double Feature. Wartime Romance.

As ‘Eighties’ as the domestic categories (and particularly my choices) are this year, the same can’t be said for the Best Foreign Feature category. If Dangerous Moves had been a Hollywood film this year, it would have starred Rodney Dangerfield as the wise-cracking, alcoholic chess grandmaster and Matthew Broderick would have been the wise-cracking young up and comer. There would have been a scene in an arcade, and hot young twenty something actress would have appeared in a bikini at some point. Being a Swiss movie, it’s a tad more serious. It feels like the Chariots Of Fire of the Chess world.

Beyond The Walls is a bit grim, isn’t it? Set in a prison, it’s about the fighting and in-fighting and conspiracy between a group of Israeli and Palestinian prisoners. Camila feels like a Hollywood Biopic – taking a tragic cult figure and blowing up the most salacious and famous moments of their life. It’s done in a considered way, with Camila presented as something of a martyr, a woman who fell in love with the wrong person in the wrong place and time. Double Feature is one of those films about films which Hollywood loves to celebrate. It’s good, but rather than a celebration about the industry it’s about how people can be so dedicated to their craft that they lose sight of their families and struggle to re-connect as they age out of the business.

Finally, Wartime Romance is exactly that – a Russian Romantic Drama about a soldier who re-connects with the nurse he had been obsessed with a decade earlier, who he then has a hand in bringing back to her former confidence and beauty. It’s not great.

My Winner: Camila

My Nominations: The Never Ending Story. 1984. The Company Of Wolves. The Element Of Crime. Greystroke. The Hit. The Killing Fields.

Can we get away with having The Never Ending Story here? I mean, they got away with giving the film that name, so I think we’re good. It was a joint production between Germany and the US… I’ll allow it, just this once. It’s another of those movies which was always on TV when I was young, and another which we watched in School when the teachers couldn’t be arsed. I’ve never been as big a fan of it as others, and I don’t think I’ve ever bothered with the sequels, but it’s fun.

The UK was putting out a fair few decent films in the 80s – not the dreary dramas and unfunny rom-coms we typically see. 1984 was inevitable, and should have received an official nomination while The Killing Fields was of course a huge critical success. The Hit saw Stephen Frears flexing his muscle, making one of the few London Gangster movies I enjoy. Story wise, it’s nothing out of the ordinary, beyond placing a lot of the tropes into a pseudo-road movie and bringing together a great cast – Terence Stamp, John Hurt, and Tim Roth. It follows an ex criminal tout enjoying his retirement thanks to ratting out his old mates, whose past catches up with him.

Greystroke is one of the more enjoyable adventure movies of the era, clearly inspired by the success of Indiana Jones but going its own way, taking the Tarzan stories and bringing them up to date. The Company Of Wolves is a movie I saw when I was very young and one whose images stayed with me for many years until I was able to watch it again. It’s certainly a film of images, given the fantastical, almost nonsensical and secondary nature of its story. It’s basically a re-telling of Little Red Riding Hood, but with a heavily erotic and violent slant, told with grim visual beaty by Neil Jordan. It’s a dense film with stories within stories, the aforementioned startling imagery, and a touch of blood and guts.

Finally, The Element Of Crime is Lars Von Trier’s debut. He’s far from full Von Trier here, but many of the elements (ahem) which would make up his later, more controversial work, is clear to see – the self-deprecating humour, the violence, the stretchy veil between tongue-in-cheek/satire/reality. It’s very strange, but full of ideas.

My Winner: The Company Of Wolves.

Let us know your winner in the comments!

The Lure

I’m no fan of musicals; it’s not that I have an inherent dislike for the genre, it’s more that they fail to live up to my expectation of what a musical should be. First and foremost – it’s still a film and should still tell an interesting story – most musicals are too trope reliant and have unconvincing and theatrical performances. Secondly, if music and song are key components of your genre, then I expect both to be good. In most musicals, the music and the songs are garbage. Finally – dancing. I don’t give a fuck about dancing. Like prayer, dancing should be something done in private, quietly, far away from me. Yet every so often, a musical comes along which seems to be made just for me – so much so that even the three criteria above can be ignored – The Blues Brothers, Disney’s Animated Features, The Happiness Of The Katakuris…. and there are probably others. When I learned that there was a Polish, explicit, sexually charged horror movie about mermaids which just so happened to be a musical, you’d better believe my brain, ears, and shlong were standing to attention.

The film begins promisingly; a rock band are chilling at night on a beach, drinking, singing, doing rock band things. A mermaid, or perhaps more accurately, a siren appears from the waves entranced by the music. Rather than pulling the men into the water and ripping them apart like the legends of yore, the siren and her sister reveal themselves to the band and decide to spend some time as land-lubbers. The sisters, named Silver and Gold, begin performing with the band and dancers and singers with the agreement that they won’t eat any band member. This works out well as the girls bring in approving crowds and the girls get to perform and perhaps fuck and kill random groupies and people they don’t like. Unfortunately, eating people isn’t a good look and the band members are kind of dicks. It seems this fairy tale is only going to end one way.

The Lure is full of ambition and humour and weirdness. It doesn’t all work, it doesn’t all gel together, and it doesn’t live up to its promise or hype. However, there aren’t many films of this ilk out there and it does about as well with its concept as you could reasonably expect it to. It isn’t overly bloody or gratuitous and it’s more likely the offbeat tone which will put people off. There’s only a fraction of a movie-watching audience who would choose to watch something like this, and a small percentage of that fraction who would enjoy it. I’m included in those metrics, and while I wish it was a little more tight, I applaud its existence. Both Marta Mazurek and Michalina Olszanska are excellent as the sisters, the make-up and effects are very good, and the Eurotrash humour made me giggle plenty of times. The music is forgettable in most cases, but works well alongside the story, while the rest of the cast and the director are knowingly making something unique and ridiculous. Without going too deep, the themes of exploitation and coming of age are clear but can easily be ignored if you’re just in it for the weirdness. If you’re going to watch a movie about killer mermaids – it’s gotta be this one.

Let us know what you think of The Lure in the comments!

Disenchanted

Disney’s 2007 movie, Enchanted, is not only one of my favourite movies of that year but it may be my favourite Disney live action movie ever, before they starting remaking everything they ever did and bought everything else everyone else made. It’s a wonderful, almost perfect movie which is both reminiscent of the old-fashioned Disney movies of yore but with a modern meta, not cynical outlook. It’s a movie which had a start, beginning, and a happily ever after ending and in essence is a movie which doesn’t need a sequel. Yet here we are, fifteen years later, waiting to hear what happens after Happily Ever After.

That ‘what happens after Happily Ever After’ bit has become something of a trope in recent years as old franchises attempt to modernise and pull in both new audiences and fans of the originals. The trouble comes when we begin thinking of money rather than story – a problem increasingly plaguing Disney, although it’s always been an issue for them. It’s not an exclusive Disney problem, or Hollywood problem, but it is a problem. If there isn’t a natural need for a sequel to exist, if there isn’t a path to a story which makes sense and is at least as plausible and as interesting as the original, then your final product might make a bucket load of cash, but will likely be an inferior product.

Disenchanted starts off in a plausible fashion – many years have passed and Giselle is still happily married to Robert, living in New York with her Step-daughter Morgan. But where’s the rub? For Giselle, things have gotten somewhat stale. Memories of her magical upbringing and homeland have made her somewhat homesick, the daily grind of New York life has got her down, and having a teenage step-daughter isn’t quite the fairy-tale ending she dreamed of. Rather than simply existing in this malaise, she takes things into her own hands and decides the family needs to move to suburbia. It’s a shaky start to the story and just about makes sense for the characters, but things quickly fall apart once they make the move.

Life in the suburbs doesn’t seem any better than in the city – in fact, the story’s drama and resolution probably could have taken place without the family ever moving. The contrivances build up and a lot of nonsense is thrown at the screen in hopes of something landing. We have a local soccer mom type who becomes an evil queen, we have Morgan maybe falling for the evil queen’s son, we have Robert becoming an essentially non-existent character, and we have Giselle fighting against becoming a wicked stepmother. Not to mention magic talking scrolls, a magic wand with rules which are immediately broken, ogres, and old characters returning because why the hell not. Pick one strand and go with it, guys. It’s messy, but it never becomes a total disaster – it just feels, and looks, and sounds redundant. The magic that was there in the original, is thoroughly gone.

If a sequel was to happen, it should have been no more than five years after the original. Essentially the same story could have been told. While Amy Adams is as good as ever, and while I don’t tend to needlessly comment on someone’s age in reviews, in 2022 her Giselle is less convincing. The child-like joy and optimism simply doesn’t work any longer, and the jokes in the script don’t work. We can’t explain this away by saying the character isn’t the same as in the original, because we see that Giselle is the same in many scenes. Robert’s side arc about being a hero could be a deliberate attempt to explain his otherwise uselessness in the script as he struggles to find his place, but I think the downgrading of his character is simply to make room for the new characters.

Maya Rudolph, who has essentially been playing the same character post-Idiocracy, is fine but her story could probably have been cut from the film to instead focus on Giselle’s inner turmoil. The cat, the lackeys, the son – unnecessary filler. The performers are good, but it’s clear that no-one gives a shit about the material. Adam Shankman makes exclusively bad films, and while Disenchanted isn’t bad, it’s far from good and even further from the original. While the original performers may have been excited to live in their characters’ shoes once more, the director and writer don’t give them much to work with. While the original had a bunch of memorable, story-related, good songs, legends Menken and Schwartz fill the sequel with junk and only one standout moment – let it be said that Idina Menzel is a beast behind the mic – Love Power bringing some much needed quality to the final half.

Disenchanted, like Enchanted probably would have worked better as a standalone. They could have had this straight to streaming curio unencumbered by the pressure of living up to a brilliant original. Instead, the memory of the original looms large, almost as large as the time gap between the two films. I’m not one to say that inferior sequels or remakes destroy the legacy of the originals, watching Enchanted again knowing that this came afterwards will certainly play on my mind a little. While some of the performances are sound, while the animated portions are good, this is simply too long, too bloated, and too late, not as smart, not as funny, and lacks the magic which made the original a one of kind film.

Let us know what you think of Disenchanted in the comments!

 

 

Nightman Listens To Marillion – Less Is More!

Greetings, Glancers! It feels like an age since I’ve listened to any new Marillion material, and it looks like I’ll have to wait a little longer, because Less Is More is Marillion’s… acoustic album? Is it acoustic, or is it simply re-imagined? The ‘less’ part of the title makes me think that this is a collection of stripped back versions of existing songs – less faff, less volume, and dare I say it, less energy. I’m curious to see how the band changes these songs, and if the ‘less’ actually does turn out to be ‘more’. I understand that there is one new, previously unheard song, which presumably ties in with the approach and tone of the other songs. Or maybe it’s a two and a half minute, 110 bpm, punk sung about tits. Lets find out.

Go kicks off the album by presenting me with a challenge; will I remember the original versions of any of these songs? Glancing at the track-list before listening, I recognized and remembered most of the names. If you put me on the spot and asked me to hum a piece of each from the names alone, I’d struggle with quite a few of them. This is odd, given how much I love music and how easily I can recall advertisement jingles or Incidental music from 80s TV shows that I may have only heard a handful of times over thirty years ago. It’s especially odd given how many times I’ve listened to each of the original versions in a relatively recent time. Does this mean it’s harder for me to learn and retain new music now that I’m older, or does it mean that Marillion’s music doesn’t play magically capture my attention like other bands do? <Shrugs>

The main thing I remembered about Go was its intro. I couldn’t have hummed it for you, but I could ‘see’ it in my head. When this new version played, I convinced myself that the version in my head was wrong. Then I realised that the band wasn’t simply playing acoustic updates, but that they were in fact re-imagining the songs, more or less from the ground up. Uber-fans like Paul will debate over which versions are superior or preferred. I’ll leave such debate to those guys, but for my part, I liked this. H sounds wonderful, the vocals are front and centre, and the more laid back and intimate feel accentuates his best qualities. He doesn’t need to be some booming tour de force, but is much more impactful when he sounds like he’s leaning on your shoulder and dripping honeyed musings into your ear from inches away.

It’s a credit to the production that this approach is so potent – stripping songs down can often drain the energy and oomph of the original, and when you’re a band like Marillion who aren’t exactly known for energy or oomph you need to be careful to retain what makes their music so powerful in the first place – their intimacy, their sense of commune, their tragedy and beauty. I think they manage this with Go. While the keyboard drive of the original has been removed, we instead are treated to sneaky tickles of violins, xylophone style keyboard tinklings, and a confidence in the song’s melodic core.

Interior Lulu opens with some near Asian guitar and keyboards, feeling like one of those 80s/90s Hollywood/Hong Kong/Japan crossover movie soundtracks – Black Rain, Rising Sun, Rapid Fire, Big Trouble In Little China, Double Impact. I half expected H to have adopted the persona of a muscle-bound, one-liner spouting martial artist for his performance. Alas, he merely perks up and gives us some RAWK vocals. Maybe’s it’s the stripped back nature of the music which gives him the freedom and space to push his vocals more here, but he does give a little bit of grit throughout the song. It works very well, it’s more convincing than some of the recent attempts at harder rock songs, and his more traditional vocal approach is on point too.

What is less convincing are the transitions. Up until the three minute mark, this is a great song and a great performance. As per the original, the song has a series of twists into new territory, but many of the transitions are almost are non-existent, making this feel like a collection of near unrelated parts. I’m sceptical that they could have done anything else with these transitions beyond conceiving a more lengthy instrumental piece to guide the music more naturally from one section to the next. The second half of the song feels more chaotic than the first and while the performances remain solid, I doubt it’s a song I’ll return to much – a shame given that I did enjoy those opening three minutes so much.

I should mention here that this is likely going to be a shorter post than usual given that we don’t need to talk about the lyrics again – that is unless Paul tells us that the lyrics were given an overhaul too. What I will say is that the re-imagining does seem to help the lyrics come through more clearly and cleanly than in some of the originals, but my central focus in my listens to this album has been on how the music has been re-framed.

Out Of This World is a song which has made my Marillion Playlist for car journeys, and I remember it being one of my favourites from Afraid Of Sunlight. The studio version was all about atmosphere and tone, helped greatly by the keyboards. On Less Is More, those keyboards are gone and we have a less atmospheric, more plaintive clean keyboard approach. The guitars are kicked up to front and centre, at least in the opening moments. As such, the song takes on a different tone. It’s not as gloomy, but feels more lonely. It feels more like a cry for help.

Out Of This World has plenty of transitions and they feel more organic than those on Interior Lulu. They are sudden, but not out of left-field. That being said, the final couple of minutes didn’t have much of an impact on me this time around. I think it would have been interesting simply to end the song after the last ‘only love will turn you round’. Sometimes it’s cool when bands just remove a piece of a song when doing a re-recording or a live rendition etc.

Wrapped Up In Time has always been a gorgeous song. I talked a little about the Less Is More version when I was doing my Happiness posts. No matter what the form the song takes I’m sure I’ll love it – this version is good, but there’s something niggling at me; I don’t think the definitive version of this song has been made. If it has been, I haven’t heard it. I think the core of the song and it’s potential are so strong that someone, someday will make a better version. Or more accurately, one that will be definitive for me.

It’s strange… this version at once feels too long and too short. The song is played at too glacial a pace, but it ends too soon. The arrangement here leans more into a Gospel/Country sound when I think they should go folk or full overblown power ballad. I don’t know what I want my version to be, but I’ll know when I hear it.

The Space was one of those songs which convinced me that I was going to like H as a vocalist, writer, and presence in the band. It’s a bit of an epic, it has a great atmosphere, and it’s a song which takes full advantage of having a full band involved in its creation and execution. The Less Is More version, as the name suggests, is over a minute shorter. Not only is the time cut, but much of the original’s atmosphere is gone, removed in favour of a more displaced Jazz approach. It works in its own way, but part of why I loved the original was because it was unashamedly silly and bombastic. We lose the crazy solo section, which I don’t mind being cut, but more of a loss is the follow-up vocal section where H channels Sting. The Less Is More version just peters out from an already drained point. It does get points for perhaps having more of a haunting and subtle ending in its final seconds. Similar to Wrapped Up Time, while I think the original version of The Space is the definitive one, I feel like there is a better stripped down take than what we have here.

Hard As Love is a song which gets stripped down both in terms of time and sound. It was Brave’s near over the top Rock song at over six minutes long, while here it’s a gentle, slow song at just over five minutes. It’s one of the more obviously different versions on Less Is More with the bulk of the song being H and piano. The guitar crunch and the gruff vocals from Brave are gone, and instead we have something tame in the Coldplay sense. As such, it takes on a different potency, a tenderness free from the reins of the Rock blow-out. Hearing this, it made me think whether a darker, slower version of the song may have worked better on Brave to match the tone of that album. The original song isn’t one I’ve gone back to much since finishing with Brave and I’m not sure that this version will make my Marillion playlist. Quality wise, or preference wise I’d put them on a similar level even though the band does a good job of making the two quite different in tone and content.

Quartz was always something of an airy, spacey song which compensated for the lack of a strong core by plastering a load of studio trickery all over it. An acoustic version is certainly brave – how do you replicate the studio trickery, never mind attempting to make a decent song over something that was quite barren? It succeeds more on the first point, but on the whole it takes a song which was already on the dull side and exposes its weaknesses. The opening three to four minutes are meandering and lifeless, even if all the twinkling and riffs make solid attempts at bulking out the song, while the closing couple of minutes are quite strong. The closing solo and vocal melodies are highlights, but it’s too little too late.

If My Heart Were A Ball is another adventurous choice given the length of the original song. This rendition loses the bombast of the original and goes all jazz club – nice. Except, I don’t like Jazz, so not nice. Like Quartz, the opening minutes do very little for me and I can’t see me, or anyone else, choosing this over the original. It has a different flavour, but it’s simply not very interesting beyond its concept of stripping down a big Proggy boy. For a minute in the middle it’s a little more interesting, but it then fades away into tepid musings. I can applaud the ambition and bravado of the attempt, but it doesn’t really work.

It’s Not Your Fault is the new boy. It’s sweet enough – almost childlike in its simplicity, like an Imagine or a Let It Be. It’s the sort of thing that H does very well – exposing lyrics and emotion. I quite like it, but in opposition to the rest of the album it’s a song which feels like it needs some additional instrumentation to bring out its strengths. It feels a little unfinished and I’d like the chorus to feature a few more lyrics rather than just the title repeated over and over. Elsewhere the lyrics cover familiar ground for the band – it’s very open, it’s less cryptic than their lyrics sometimes get which aids in the overall lullaby effect. I’d be keen to hear a more fleshed out version if such a thing exists.

With Memory Of Water, there’s only so much you can do with it. The original was already very short and simple – converting it into an acoustic or stripped back version would seemingly take little effort. The Less Is More version is a little more intimate and feels less cinematic, and the slightly increased pace helps it feel less like an interlude. I prefer the H performance in the original, but he’s still very good here. There’s not a lot to it, but I would have no qualms about having it on a playlist.

This Is The 21st Century seems to be a quite highly regarded song in some Marillion circles, but in its original form I was ambivalent about it. Bits I enjoyed, bits I didn’t. I much prefer the Less Is More version and the stripped down nature allows the melodic qualities of the first half to rise to the top. We lose the bananas guitar solo but the piano climax makes up for the loss. It’s half the length of the original so almost all of the atmospheric soundscape stuff has been omitted meaning we have two very different versions of the song. An eleven minute stripped back version wouldn’t work at all. Which version you enjoy more will be down to your personal preference and your mood in the moment.

Finally, Cannibal Surf Babe is throwaway fun. I wasn’t much of a fan of the original, but I get it. This one isn’t too different – it’s very loose and the band are clearly enjoying the performance, but I don’t like the vocals, the talking, or much else. It’s not a mess, but it’s not something I’d ever need to hear again.

Over to BYAMPOD and… are the guys covering the whole album in a single episode? It’s a long one (lovely), but it seems like they’re talking about H’s new solo EP too. Maybe they’ll just fly through Less Is More because the bulk of the songs have already been covered in previous episodes, albeit in their original form. Or maybe it’s a two-parter. Of course, I could just listen to the thing before wastefully typing this nonsense, but then I’ miss out on my million words a day quota.

We begin by talking about that new EP – I have not heard it, but I’m sure it’s as lovely as a Long One. Before releasing Less Is More, the band released a bunch of Live albums and curios. I haven’t heard those either. The band were burned out, but still wanting to do something. They decided to re-arrange a bunch of old songs in a semi-acoustic fashion, whittled down the list, and were ready to go. At the time, Paul wasn’t too impressed by the album and felt it was lacking in almost all respects, but in this re-appraisal he is more positive. The general consensus seems to be along the same lines – some people are uninspired, other people found preferred versions of songs within. I think that’s the way most of these things tend to go.

We get going with Go, a song which Paul felt was a little pointless due to its similarity to the original. It’s a song which relies on energy, especially when played live, and here the guys feel it has that energy drained. I felt this too, but that the new arrangement also increased some of the more gentle and melodic qualities of the original.

With Interior Lulu, Sanja didn’t notice many differences and that it’s lacking the funk of the original. Paul thinks that the song lacks the potency of the original’s ending. Not much more to add. Paul and Sanja both feel that Less Is More’s Out Of This World is the better version. I liked most of it, but felt the second half dragged a little. Paul says that this is the case when the song is played live, but he enjoys it here and wishes it was longer. That’s the complete opposite of what I said and that they should have cut out the ending entirely. Controversy all around, then.

Wrapped Up In Time is another song which the guys are favourable on, with both thinking this is better. It could be a bit of the ‘newness’ factor – sometimes when you hear a cover or new version of a song, that newness leads you to enjoy it more than the original, but sometimes that newness fades. Sometimes it doesn’t, and the new thing becomes the definitive thing. I felt that, while I liked this version a lot, it still left me wanting. That definitive version is still out there, somewhere.

Sanja found The Space funky and soulful, but again lacks the energy of the original. Paul agrees that it’s not an improvement and is another of those songs which feels somewhat plodding and unnecessary. Both guys enjoy this take on Hard As Love – particularly Sanja, and both may be convinced that this is the preferred version. Quartz sounds unfinished according to Sanja and that the loss of the bass is detrimental. Paul thinks the whole thing is a patchwork, but that the ending solo is sublime. Sanja prefers this version of Heart – Paul thinks it’s fine but isn’t a huge fan of the original in any case. Incidentally, I haven’t been taking notes on how many songs the guys prefer over the original. Or how many I prefer.

Sanja enjoys It’s Not Your Fault more than Paul, who says H wrote it as an adult lullaby, while Paul loves the lyrics more than the music. Paul prefers this take on Memory Of Water, Sanja prefers the original, while I’m in the middle – for anyone counting. It’s not very different. Sanja prefers the Less version of 21st Century, while Paul doesn’t think it works very well. He still likes it, but it’s not on par with the original. Naturally, I felt that this version was much better. Finally, Cannibal Surf Babe happened.

The guys think the album is more for the hardcore fans, while being a bit of a cash in. I like albums like this in theory – I have a whole series (mostly unpublished) about bands I wished had made an MTV Unplugged album, or something similar. While this isn’t quite that, it’s a similar idea – stripped down versions of songs we already know. As a music fan who gets passionate about many bands – I want more material from them, and if something like this bridges a gap between albums, then I’d rather it existed than didn’t. What I’m not a huge supported of is multiple Greatest Hits or multiple Live albums. One of each is more than enough. Even though Iron Maiden has released a couple of the best Live Albums ever, they are more than guilty of ripping the arse out of it. It seems like every new album is accompanied by a Live album – yet typically the setlist doesn’t vary much. And they never shy away from a ‘new’ Greatest Hits every few years.

I think that if you’re going to do it, do it different. Make it somehow unique – something that you wouldn’t expect from the band, like Metallica’s S&M. Make it worth hearing. Put on a new track or two. Make the new version drastically different. Radiohead’s From The Basement series are a great example – Radiohead typically giving new life to songs that I don’t think work particularly well in their original form.

On the whole for me, it’s an album which suffers from two key issues, issues which many albums of this ilk fall foul of; the wrong songs were selected for this experiment, and the wrong approach was taken on the songs that were selected. I use ‘wrong’ subjectively. I’m a minor Marillion fan by all accounts, and while I have my own list of songs I’d like to see given the stripped down treatment, the lifer fans would have personal lists too. I like that they didn’t just pick ‘easy’ songs to play safe versions of, but by the same token many of the songs which were selected simply weren’t very strong to begin with. I’ve often said that the strength of any song (if we’re going by my own personal metrics of melody and emotion) is whether or not it retains its power when stripped down to its most simple parts – a vocal and a single instrument. Some of the songs selected didn’t have that core to begin with, instead relying on atmosphere and what the band and Producers can concoct in the studio. If choosing a song like this, you can transform the thing by pushing the core into a different genre, changing the pace, even twisting the melodies, but for some of the more dull entries on the track list, the band simply cut away the chaff and played slower.

On the other hand, some of the revisions are much more successful and come to close (or succeed in) surpassing the originals. I had a couple I would choose over the originals and a couple that were on par. It’s not an album I see myself returning to, and I don’t expect many others would. While I appreciate the idea of these albums, the only one that ever truly worked for me was The Gathering’s Sleepy Buildings. Still, at some these bands will be no more, and it’s nice that we got one more album from them, even if it may not be essential.

There we have it! I’m away to cut and paste my comments on the second half of the album here, meaning that this will turn out to be quite a long post after all. But that’s Less Is More out of the way in a single post. Up next is a bunch of other side projects. I’ll probably give them a cursory listen but likely won’t post on them unless they change my life. Go listen, go comment, do all of the stuff!

Nightman Listens To – Some Time In New York City – John Lennon (Non-Beatles Series)!

Greetings, Glancers! It’s obvious by now that I’ve been disappointed by Lennon’s post Beatles work. I could say the same for all of them really, but I think both McCartney and Harrison have so far made more songs that I’ve enjoyed. I didn’t know a thing about this album until I went to grab the tracklist and saw that it is half studio, half live. I’m not going to listen to the Live half. I’ve I’d absolutely loved Lennon’s post-Beatles work till this point, then I may have dipped into the Live part, but I haven’t so I won’t. Maybe I’ll come back to it some day. Anyway, here’s what I assume is another bunch of angry protest songs.

‘Woman Is The N****r Of The World‘ is a song I’m aware of more because of its name and surrounding controversy, rather than any musical or lyrical content. In fact, of the ten songs listed, I don’t believe I’ve heard any of them. It has a big brass opening, Lennon’s soothing vocals a counterpoint to the harsher vocals and the great lyrics. He does go in for the hard R at times too. The music is laid back in a New Orleans style, but isn’t overly exciting. There’s a lot thrown in to the production in terms of layering, but little of it stands out. As you’ll hear me say quite a bit, which is unusual for someone who loves long songs, but this could have been condensed easily to under four minutes and increased its impact.

‘Sisters, O Sisters‘ begins, as is standard for Yoko, with some Yoko warbling. What’s interesting is that the song is actually quite fun – it has a Motown/Supremes/earlier rock vibe. The production is particularly horrible and with Yoko’s vocals being what they are… were they trying to hide how bad they sound by doubling up? That has only made them worse. Stick any other vocalist in here and you’d have a pretty nifty song. A shame as this is very catchy and lovely – it’s like seeing someone butcher your favourite song at a school talent contest.

‘Attica State‘ opens like a hundred other Blues rockers, including quite a few which The Beatles did themselves. The squealing guitars, shouty vocals, and burping horns compliment each other even if it does all sound jumbled and messy. It keeps to a more adequate length.

‘Born In A Prison’ is intentionally positioned tracklist wise between the next song and the previous one. Yoko does a lullaby sing-song to remind us of all of the prisons we find ourselves in. The vocals are marginally better, John’s arsing about in the background, and it’s all a little too quaint. Nice sax, if you’re into that sort of thing.

‘New York City’ is another, uninventive, riff on blues rock standards. It’s all a bit silly when you see what Zep was doing at this point in time. Without having heard this song before, it’s a song I’ve heard a hundred times before. The lyrics are more interesting, but it’s a song which isn’t saying a lot. Solid guitar in there. It’s a topical Chuck Berry influence rocker, without the melodic fun. Again, shave a minute off this and you don’t lose anything.

‘Sunday Bloody Sunday‘ opens with a much more interesting sound, and evolves into a funky rhythm. Unfortunately the lyrics are a bit of a shambles. I appreciated the sentiment, but coming from Northern Ireland you’re never going to get a simple answer to such a mess. The general consensus in these sorts of songs and movies is that the Protestants living in Northern Ireland shouldn’t be here and should be booted out. Which would be fine if we’d just moved in and took over 5 minutes ago, but all of that shit was the crimes of our (several times over) ancestors and ultimately becomes a naive and racist statement in itself and makes a mockery of his sentiment in Imagine. Good music all round though.

‘The Luck Of The Irish‘ is a sweet little ditty which seems to deal with the same subject as the previous song. It’s a little too saccharine and on the nose with Yoko’s mythological nonsense, but Lennon’s lyrics include a few great lines. A few more naive ones too – taking sides in this nonsense as it currently stands will never get anywhere – there are simply murderers and monsters from all directions and the best solution would be to nuke it all and start again.

‘John Sinclair‘ is a folksy rocker which sees Lennon still trying to emulate Dylan. It’s more fun than a Dylan song, and has the benefit of not having Dylan sing on it. Plus the slide guitar is strong with this one, and the ‘got to got to got to’ shenanigans is fairly amusing.

‘Angela‘ is a sweet song. It’s another Yoko song, neatly constructed and catchy, but harmed by the fact that she’s the one singing on it. Is that Harrison on guitar? It sounds like his tone.

‘We’re All Water‘ blasts out of the speakers, a fast paced jukebox rocker with plenty of horn parps and jagged guitar. Yoko sings again – they’ve got her voice filtered again so it sounds even weirder than normal. The vocals are more spoken than sung. It’s basically a list of names juxtaposed, with the refrain signifying that we’re all the same. Then Yoko starts screeching, which I don’t mind as much as her singing. It’s damn catchy too.

It’s another sub par album by Lennon. The better songs, musically, are the ones which Yoko performs. Which is a mess because her vocals are not right. I get that you want to work with the one you love, and that when you’re John Lennon you can do whatever the fuck you want. But from a purely musical perspective, from the respective of any listener, there are so many other singers out there that could have filled in and turned the songs into what they deserved to be instead of a point of ridicule. Lennon sounds as if he’s barely trying, while the Yoko songs are genuinely fun, or would be with a stronger singer.

Nightman’s Playlist Picks: Angela. John Sinclair, I guess. We’re All Water.

Let us know your thoughts in the comments!

Best Song – 1984

Official Nominations: I Just Called To Say I Love You. Take A Look At Me Now. Footloose. Lets Hear It For The Boy. Ghostbusters.

We’re deep into the 80s now – just look at these songs, every one was a hit, every one is still played today and everyone knows them. Probably only two of them are recognisable from their respective movie today, but these are all still significant movie songs in their own right. I can’t complain about any of these being the winner – I Just Called To Say I Love You is the official choice and it’s one of my favourite Stevie Wonder songs. Most of his fans disregard this one but as I’m not a huge fan of his I don’t fall into that category. I just like good cheese. Likewise, I’m not a fan of Phil Collins, but I do like Take A Look At Me Now (or Against All Odds as it is correctly named). Footloose and Lets Hear It For The Boy I can’t say I really like but they’re both a lot of cheesy 80s fun. My winner then is the most iconic song of the bunch, at least in terms of movies. Everyone knows Ghostbusters – who ya gonna call, and all that. Even so, I’m not a massive fan of the song – I like it, who doesn’t – but I have to pick it as the winner.

My Winner: Ghostbusters

My Nominations: I Just Called To Say I Love You. Take A Look At Me Now. Footloose. Lets Hear It For The Boy. Ghostbusters. The Heat Is On. You’re The Best. Young Hearts. Feel The Night. Cruel Summer. See Me In The Mirror. Love Came For Me. Sorcerer. Nowhere Fast. Breaking Like The Wind. Stonehenge.

This is when we get into that realm of 80s movies and hit songs going hand in hand. It honestly seems like every worthwhile movie released this year, and in this era, had an accompanying hit song or songs. If they couldn’t manage a hit song, they likely had a hit piece of theme music – see Beverly Hills Cop. Not happy with having a hit theme, Beverly Hills Cop also had a hit song in The Heat Is On – you already know it, and now that I’ve made you remember it you’ll be going ‘wow ooh wow oh, wow ooh wow oh’ all day.

The Karate Kid is littered with hits and 80s monstrosities – the biggest one being ‘You’re The Best’ – another inspirational anthem that you can’t help but love. Young Hearts is pretty dreadful on its own, but once again it works well within the confines of the movie. The same goes for Feel The Night. Cruel Summer ended up being one of Bananarama’s biggest hits, debuting in The Karate Kid.

It’s fair to say Alice Cooper was a bit of a mess in the 80s, recording several bad albums that he has zero recollection of. He also popped up in a number of horror movies and contributed songs to them. He wrote two songs for the Italian cult horror movie Monster Dog, and while they are far from his best, they are stronger than most of his early 80s output. Identity Crisis is a slice of fun but See Me In The Mirror is a darker ballad of the type Cooper was an expert at writing – again far from his best, but a vital curio. Many people would say that the most important soundtrack of this year was Purple Rain. And yet, I’ve never been a Prince fan. At the time his music always seemed too 80s to me, too samey, too reliant on the same rhythms and synth sounds. My opinion hasn’t really changed over the years though I’m aware I’ve only heard a fraction of his work. As such, I’m struggling to find a song from the movie I actually enjoy. Just to annoy you further, I’ll add another slice of stinking cheese in Love Came For Me from Splash. Come at me!

Lets keep things going with the bizarre Streets Of Fire – Nowhere Fast is a decent attempt at some sort of rock/pop opera thing while Sorcerer is a more simple atmospheric ballad. Next we land on The Terminator with a few songs lurking in the background and hitting that weird mix of techno and rock that was around for a few years in the decade – Burning In The Third Degree has a crap verse but great chorus. Most of the other tracks aren’t worth mentioning. For This Is Spinal Tap, really any of the songs could make an appearance but I’m already ripping the arse out of it – my favourites being Break Like The Wind and Stonehenge, but really the entire album rips to shreds everything that was, and is, so laughable and terrible about 80s hair metal. For anyone still reading… I think we’re done here. I think we know Ghostbusters is the winner, but I’m the contrarian.

My Winner: You’re The Best

Let us know your winner in the comments!

Nightman Listens To – Psycho Motel – State Of Mind (Maiden Non Maiden Series)!

Greetings, Glancers! I’m going to try to be a little more consistent with these things. What tends to happen is that, I get bored focusing on one thing for too long and burn out, but just looking at how regularly I post under a specific topic is a little embarrassing. If anyone tunes in and only wants to read my posts on the Iron Maiden members’ non-IM work, or my Madonna or Bon Jovi posts, or whatever, there’s maybe one post on each every few months. That’s a bit crappy. I’m still writing them in the background, but I’m simply not posting them. So yeah, more consistency.

This time around it’s another Adrian Smith vehicle I’m unfamiliar with. From memory, I enjoyed some parts of Smith’s previous band ASAP, but felt their album ran out of steam quickly. I can only assume that his mid-nineties outfit, prior to re-joining Maiden, were more successful given they had two albums. State Of Mind was released in 1995 – near enough Grunge Peak – and hair metal, 80s style metal was all but dead. Maiden themselves weren’t having the best of times, and it was Europe which took the mantle, taking power and symphonic metal in the next logical direction. I’ve no idea what this will sound like. I assume there will be guitars, but whether it’s Maiden-esque, whether it’s hard rock, whether it’s grunge, whether it’s whatever – I don’t know. The name Psycho Motel does feel familiar to me – maybe they appeared in Beavis And Butthead or maybe the were featured in Kerrang at the time. Lets do this.

Sins Of Your Father: I get an instant Alice In Chains vibe from that opening riff, that sludgy guitar tone. It gets more slow, more dirty with the verse and follow-up riff. That’s not Smith on the vocals anyway. The vocals feel like the sleazier side of 80s metal, while the groove and tone feel Seattle inspired. It’s likely the upload quality I’m listening, but the drums feel distant, not as impactful as they should be. This is a slow, sludgy opener, nothing extraordinary, but hard and heavy, and something to knock back a beer to.

World’s On Fire: The tuning seems quite low on these songs so far – again hitting those lower register metal tones. I can’t say I enjoy the shouts of ‘fight’ in the verse – very cheesy a la 80s cheese. The guitars almost feel too distorted – could be the crappy upload though. So far, there’s nothing akin to Maiden at all, so good to see Smith again branching out further. The solo work hasn’t been amazing on these two tracks – more like any number of rock bands from the era. Not the most exciting song, and not as engaging as the opener.

Psycho Motel: Has a thankfully different intro, coming in with acoustic (?) guitars and some near Eastern arsing about before the fat riff drops. It’s another very groovy riff, more of the dirty tone – this one feels more like a single. There’s a greater melodic quality and it feels more coherent. It’s a foot tapper. Reminds me of a heavier, slower Slash’s Snakepit. This is the best song so far, but nothing special.

Western Shore: Starts with an acoustic shuffle, something like Soul Asylum or Mr Big or any of the 80s bands when they decided to have a ballad moment. The vocals work well along with the guitar, if a little Richard Marx-like. In the second verse they drop a string section when I was expecting a drum blast. The drum blast comes for the second chorus. Then there’s a sudden transition into a strange funk jazz rock fusion – an excuse for a bit of volume and twiddling. I’m not sure it fits, but it’s not bad.

Rage: A big crunchy intro leads to a screechy verse where the riffs pause for the vocals and vice versa. There’s some swirly vocal effects in the bridge, and the chorus is a bit of a nothing. It’s all quite bouncy so old school headbangers will get some mileage from the beat and volume, but for someone like me looking to make more of an emotional connection or hoping for something more inventive, there isn’t much to get behind. It’s a short one.

Killing Time: A squealing intro makes way for a great driving riff, which in turn drops away for a much more middle of the road, average rock verse. It’s all quite muddled and none of it makes much of an impact. What I assume is the chorus drops before the second minute mark, and it’s better. Not better enough to save the whole song, but still an improvement. Then there’s some solo stuff and the band fannying about. I’m not sure what this is meant to be, it feels like three separate jams or a batch of unused ideas squeezed into a single song.

Time Is A Hunter: Drums. Chords. The song name gives me Zeppelin vibes. The lyrics definitely give that early bluesy Zeppelin feel. The comparison doesn’t go much further. The melodies aren’t exciting, the music is just sort of ‘there’ and yet in the background. There’s a neater middle section which again offers some slight improvement. It returns to the blues and keeps going for another few minutes.

Money To Burn: A decent twangy riff gets a metal overhaul and segues into a decent verse and then a decent chorus. This one is more catchy than most of the other songs, decent all round. Again, hardly a song to light up anyone’s life, but fun nonetheless.

City Of Light: Does this sound like Peace Sells? There’s something familiar and Mustainey about the song. A siren guitar and some clanging single notes at least offer a taste of atmosphere. The songs feels like it’s building to something, rather than a collection of random unfocused notes and riffs. The bridge into chorus together is a little strange, but does offer a different type of melody. There’s some start/stop going on to which helps the rhythm along.

Excuse Me: Jeepers, this is full on grunge – on the softer side. That verse feels part Bush, part Soundgarden. Man, the vocals and the guitar and the melody is straight out of Seattle. Is this a cover? I don’t think it’s amazing, but it’s different enough from the rest of the album to make it feel unique, and it does have a much greater melodic quality and it feels like a single. There’s that added coherence to the structure. Maybe a minute longer than it should be.

Last Goodbye: These last two tracks seem to be re-release or extra tracks, but I’ll cover them anyway. Assuming this isn’t a Jeff Buckley cover. It opens with some ominous guitar and effects and soundbites before the jump-scare guitar drops with a stomping pace. Aside from the chorus, it’s more of the same really – heavy, but doesn’t leave me with anything interesting to say. It’s just loud, middling rock music which doesn’t demand my attention.

Can’t Wait: This one feels more chaotic, moderately faster, with a touch of funk. The bass is doing some funky bits and it is more melodic in places. But definitely chaotic – a lot of noise, and not a lot of it making much impact.

Not the most exciting album in the world then, even by mid-nineties hard rock standards. The majority of the album just felt like bang average rock songs – not a lot of edge, not a lot of emotion, melody, or originality, but for people who like to have any heavy music to stick on in the background to get them though the day, they shouldn’t have many complaints. I’m including myself in that group. Each song had something I liked, but those best bits never lasted or elevated the song as a whole. The band must have had fun and must have had a measure of success if they returned for another album. I won’t say I’m looking forward to hearing that one, but I’m marginally curious to see if they change their sound or if it’s simply more of the same.

Let us know in the comments what you think of State Of Mind!

Nightman’s Playlist Picks: Psycho Hotel. Money To Burn. Western Shore. Excuse Me.

Nightman Listens To – Master Of Reality – Black Sabbath (Top 500 Metal Series)!

*Note – I set this to publish back in 2020, but something went wrong and it seemingly never posted. So here you go.

Greetings, Glancers! It feels like we’re getting through an awful lot of Black Sabbath so far with this list, which is a good thing as they were always more of a Greatest Hits band to me while I’m now able to take a deeper dive at their core work. Having said that, I’m pretty familiar with this album even if I’ve never heard it from start to finish. It contains a number of their most famous songs – songs which have appeared on Compilations, and songs which I’ve heard played at the Rock and Metal shows I used to go to and DJ at.

There isn’t much to say about the album cover – it’s iconic in its own way, more due to the popularity of the album rather than the actual artwork, but it does have an interesting wavering font which aligns with some of the more fusion and drug elements of the band and makes me think of a psychedelic Scooby Doo. The almost black on black print for the album title is a neat touch too. But lets just hit play on the thing, right?

‘Sweet Leaf’ begins with a cough which used to freak me out when I first heard the song on a Greatest Hits. I first thought it was a mistake. It’s still a strange inclusion now. But beyond that we get another fat, dirty Iommi riff. Like a lot of the best Sabbath riffs, it’s so simple yet leaves plenty of room for vocal accompaniment and instrumental arrangement. After a couple of verses, the song takes off into an extended instrumental phrase – the drums and bass are pouncing all over the place and there’s a sprinkling of shredding – then we return to the verse. Ozzy doesn’t sound too bad – he still has a distant, near reverb tone on his vocals, but this adds to the overall Sabbath sound. It’s a good song, can’t say I’ve ever loved it and I wish the instrumental part had gone a little further, lasted a little longer, but it’s still a powerful intro.

‘After Forever‘ feels much brighter and fun – the intro is faster and the riff makes the band sound less like Doom Metal, and more like a 70s US rock band. If you hadn’t heard it before, you wouldn’t guess it was Sabbath. The verses change up the pace and tone somewhat, the lyrics are funny, and on the second turn a thundering funky section changes things further. From there it’s a collection of the intro and verse riffs with assorted guitar trickery and freakouts.

‘Embryo‘ is one which, I’ve never been able to work out why, but was quite off-putting to me. Not because it was bad, more because it felt like it was triggering some unconscious memory from a past life in me which made me feel all apprehensive and panicky. I know that sounds ludicrous, but there you are. Something about the jaunty near-medieval melodies of the intro which aren’t quite out of tune, but are… puts me in the headspace of a child terrified by Knightmare or traumatised by some unimaginable horror scene. Then it’s followed up by a Doctor Who style galloping riff and the memory is slowly dispelled.

‘Children Of The Grave‘ continues based off that galloping Dr Who riff. The downtuned guitar and bass sound is really coming through here, and it may take a bit of getting used to for traditional rock fans. It’s not something I’m a massive fan of in general and metal bands have a habit of using it too much, but it’s perfect for Sabbath. The drums feel like trash can lids, but not in a St Anger way, and of course the technique is perfection.  It isn’t the most exciting song or riff the band has written, but there is room for a brief instrumental interlude in the middle and a spooky Friday The 13th ending.

‘Orchid‘ is a lovely acoustic guitar instrumental which doesn’t fit neatly with what you know of the band or have heard so far on the album. It sounds more complex than it is, the playing given a swirling hypnotic quality.

‘Lord Of This World‘ on the other hand is exactly what you would expect – a stinking riff followed by a whirlwind of drums before settling into a slower, funkier riff for the verse. Ozzy’s vocals have that distorted quality again, and by now the vocal approach feels a little overly familiar with Ozzy’s limitations becoming clear. It’s still fine, but the vocal melodies and rhythms do become repetitive between songs when listening to a full album. I assume another singer might have the range or originality to spin things up a little. It works better as a standalone than an album track, but the rest of the band are great as always.

‘Solitude‘ begins with a duet between guitar and bass – sweet and moody – and then the vocals start. Is that even Ozzy? Well, clearly they’ve listened to my previous comment as the vocals are almost entirely different on this one. The song isn’t quite trance-like, but it is lovely, hypnotic, sad. The lyrics are of the broken heart, I miss you type, and the whole song is mostly quiet and slow to echo the sentiment.

‘Into The Void‘ is the other big hitter of the album, closing the album with another famous riff which sounds like a, well, a giant Iron Man strutting down your street and happily munching on rooftops. Eventually the chugging joins in and we take things up a notch. Ozzy’s back to the more familiar vocals and the lyrics are back to more of what we expect. The pace picks up once more in the middle for a brief high speed slice of tomfoolery before returning to the verse and main riff. It’s a popular song, it’s easy to see why.

It’s another consistent and strong album by Sabbath. They haven’t made a bad one yet in my journey, although this one does feel the most ‘Sabbathy’. It has their key sounds, but it also has those trademarks which remind me why I was never their biggest fan. While the rhythm section is as superb as ever, the lack of variety in the vocals and melodies does become apparent, and even the individual riffs are great and the timing changes up multiple times per song, there is the sense that songs become repetitive. I think that’s more my issue with the genre – so dependent on slow, booming riffs, and songs that often stretch out longer than is necessary, with maybe less aggression or less emotion than I would like. Like I say, those are just my issues with the genre and the band, and plenty of others will love the music for the exact reasons I don’t. I still recognise the strength of the songs, certainly of the musicianship, and there isn’t a song here I’d have a problem hearing again. Just not many I’d actively pursue hearing.

Nightman’s Playlist Picks: After Forever. Solitude. Orchid.

Best Score – 1984

Official Nominations: A Passage To India. The Temple Of Doom. The Natural. The River. Under The Volcano. Purple Rain. The Muppets Take Manhattan. The Songwriter.

Maurice Jarre picked up an official win for A Passage To India – a score with a lot of different styles at play, from big band jazz and orchestra epic pieces to more subtle sitar and mario-lava-level pieces. It’s big and bold, but it’s lacking in any great hooks to pull me in and doesn’t have a lot of deep resonating emotion. Similarly trawling the depths of Eastern culture and mysticism is Temple Of Doom, the sequel/prequel to Raiders Of The Lost Ark. Most of the best moments are borrowed from the first film, but there are one or two wonderful new pieces and changes to the classics to make it higher in my estimation than the official winner. John Williams was also nominated for The River this year, but it’s a bland enough score to go along with a bland film.

The Natural is a film about baseball, so I’m already not particularly interested, yet there’s something about the sport that makes it apparently the best candidate for translating to screen. There aren’t many great sports movies, but most of them are based around baseball. Randy Newman’s score is fine, moving from inspirational, oft copied ditties to era-specific pieces that I’m not so keen on. Under The Volcano always makes me think of the terrifying kids show Under The Mountain, though the two are in no way related. It and Moondial were pure nightmare fuel. Anyway, Alex North’s score has a lot of South American influence, but even in its more unusual moments it isn’t memorable.

Purple Rain unsurprisingly won the award for Best Original Song score but as I’m not a huge fan of the dearly departed star’s music, it’s not getting my vote. Joining him in that category were The Muppets with another collection of faintly riotous songs and Kris Kristofferson for Songwriter which has too much Country for my tastes.

My Winner: The Temple Of Doom

My Nominations: The Temple Of Doom. Beverly Hills Cop. Birdy. Body Double. The Company Of Wolves. Conan The Destroyer. Ghosbusters. Gremlins. The Karate Kid. The Killing Fields. The Last Starfighter. A Nightmare On Elm Street. Once Upon A Time In America. Police Academy. Splash. Starman. Supergirl. The Terminator.

Only my winner makes it to my list. Beverly Hills Cop gets a nod mostly for the great Axel F track and a variety of other early electronica. Peter Gabriel’s score for Birdy feels like a stark departure from his usual hits, a poignant, dreamlike collection of minimalist mood pieces. Pino Donaggio work well together once again on Body Double to make a score which apes Hitchcock and Hermann but has plenty of its own unique 80s pieces. You can’t talk about dreamlike without mentioning The Company Of Wolves – one of the first horror movies I ever saw and a score which never fails to send chills through me. Conan The Destroyer as a movie is, well, crap in comparison to Conan The Barbarian with the score being one of the major redeeming things. The score isn’t as wonderful as the first movie’s score (what is?) but it has a couple of excellent standalone themes and updates enough of the original’s tracks to remind us what a huge talent Poledouris was. Berstein’s Ghosbusters isn’t merely a bunch of ‘who ya gonna calls’ but has plenty of instrumental pieces of note, from the creepy museum intro to the madness of the ghostly caperings around New York later in the film.

This category is ripe for WTFs, as already discussed in my 1982 post. Gremlins not getting a nod this year is another of those. You have a conductor already recognized as an Academy favourite doing some of his most recognizable work, yet they pass it over. Gizmo’s theme and the main theme are both iconic, fantastic, and more deserving of a mention than most other pieces on this post. The Karate Kid must surely get a nomination too – Bill Conti another previous winner passed over. Sure I’m biased with a lot of these 80s movies as I grew up with them, but even removing yourself from that nostalgic viewpoint these films still have rip-roaring, rousing, inspirational scores – it’s not quite on the level of Rocky but it has a more youthful feel and if anything has more going on than Rocky with a great variety of styles.

Mike Oldfield’s score for The Killing Fields  score is gut-wrenching, epic, haunting, and memorable. There are too many great choices this year. The Last Starfighter may be a Star Wars clone but at least it tries to plough its own musical groove. All good slashers need a good score, or at least a great central theme – A Nightmare On Elm Street has one of the best yet most underrated. Funhouse fairground style sounds collide with child-like rhymes and simple melodies played with menace on the keys. There’s a lot of 80s rock influence there too and a touch of the industrial all meshing together in one nightmarish whole. Morricone’s Once Upon A Time In America – you already know it’s a masterpiece before you hear it. What’s surprising perhaps is how gentle and tender and melancholy it all is, eschewing the usual dramatic overpowering strings with more subtle softer moments, taking in South American, Asian, and European influences. Police Academy has, hands down, one of the best main themes in movie history and while the rest of the score doesn’t live up  to it, it still has other notable once-heard-never-forgotten arrangements.

This is truly the category that never ends. Splash is another romantic, dreamy string led soundtrack which remains beautiful without becoming cutesy. Starman is one of those rare John Carpenter movies where he didn’t provide the score, with Jack Nitzche providing the music instead. His main theme is one of the most gorgeous of the decade, complimented by other romantic and tension filled synthetic tracks. Supergirl… not the greatest film but fun in its own way and it has another great Goldsmith score even if it is a bit too similar to Star Trek. With The Terminator soundtrack Brad Fidel stamped his name on the industry making a score which merges dark techno and rock into a beast unlike anything else at the time. The main theme we all know, the beat in the original being slightly different to the more popular main theme of T2 and taking on a more synthetic and threatening tone than the industrial and emotion led follow-up. The central beat of course has become synonymous with the series and has taken on a life of its own outside of the film. I love how the beat becomes more aggressive as the track progresses, that sense of approaching danger growing, and it is balanced by pulsating chase themes and heartfelt, heart-breaking piano-led track which remain in regular rotation in my iPod.

My Winner: The Terminator

Let us know your winner in the comments!