Starring: Xavier Samuel, Robin McLeavy

Synopsis: In order to avoid a ghostly figure in the road, high school senior Brent Mitchell wraps his car around a tree, killing his father. Constantly confronted by his mother’s emotional collapse after the accident, Brent escapes into a marijuana fueled world of loud metal music to block the pain and guilt. Dejected and out of sorts, he has a shot at happiness with his girlfriend Holly, a grounded, caring girl with drop dead good looks, a dream date for the high school prom. But his plans are thwarted by a disturbing series of events that take place under a mirrored disco ball, involving pink satin, glitter, syringes, nails, power drills and a secret admirer. Brent has become the prom king at a macabre, sadistic event where he is the entertainment.

My two Cents: From all the movies in my Movies till your head … -Post this one had me gnawing my fingernails. The Loved Ones caught me off-guard. Seriously, i can take graphic/explicit violence up to a non-human measure and there are only a handful of movies that frightened the hell out of me, but seeing a teenaged Lola (Kudos to Robin McLeavy for a truly frightening performance) torturing Brent (Xavier Samuel), all-the-while trying to seduce her own father. This is a serious fucked up father-daughter relationship. Some of it’s “Oh-no-you-don’t”- moments reminded me of Tideland. The movie is soaked with cruelty manifesting itself in lenghty torture-scenes. Oddly though those scenes excel in a special field, slapping your horror-movie expectations until you have no other option than to let go and accept a very rewarding – yet scary and intimidating – ride. Be warned,  The Loved Ones may not be as hard as Hostel but make no mistake, at the end of the day it will be messing with your head, more than Eli Roth’s milestone.

Live long and prosper!

P.

So before we digg deeper into the world of artificial blood and cheap thrills, here’s an overview, both for your informational pleasure and my note-to-myself-on-display-insurance.

The reviews will take some time, but we will get there, eventually.

Live long and prosper!

P.

live long and prosper.

P.

First day of the Rock en Seine Festival, but not for us. Even though we spent more than an hour on the metro the weather just didn’t feel right. So we decided to have some sushi and visit La Tour Eiffel, from a distance that was. One might argue that we’ve grown old, that we lost our love for music. Be that as it may, today’s lineup had no bands the both of us wouldn’t have seen before. Maybe tomorrow (and not only because the Stereophonics might actually play that song).

Live long and prosper!

P.

Live long and prosper

H. & P.

After we finally managed to get out of bed, the capital of France delivered as usual. I thought the waiter was joking when he said he’d bring a huge milk coffee, turns out he wasn’t. The rush kept us going, as far as from Notre-Dame to Sacré Coeur, trying to avoid the main tourist routes as often as possible. You’d be amazed how many people try to squeeze the same over-prized restaurants, while the little cafés (serving better food) 20 feet away remain empty. So we had our fair share of Paris served with alot of privacy, great food and a trip that ended at the infamous Place Pigalle. The 102 € entry fee as well as our casual choice of clothing kept us from seeing the naked can-can “follie”, a certain well-known red version of Don Quijote’s biggest adversary would have had to offer. Nevermind (see what i just did?…).

Live long and prosper.

P.

i highly recommend these in-ear-phones for every iphone user out there. once you plug them in, screaming children, stupid conversations and just about every background noise you can imagine on your way to work disappears in a cloud of sweet, dynamic, perfectly shaped music. i own 2 bang & olufsen tower-speakers, so i can tell high-fi from crappy noise-like audio. the ultimate ears deliver the rich sound you were craving for, at a price that’ll bring out your mad grin that tells the world you just made an absolutely unbelievable bargain. 5 points.

what’s missing in that equation is the pure genius unleashed. see rock music is supposed to hit you in the guts, twist them and leave you frantically grinning on the floor. them crooked vultures are three guys that don’t have to prove anything at all, their names being already a substantial part in music-history.

it’s simple, it’s beautiful and most of all, it’s rhythm. no matter how cool the foo fighters are, dave grohl is a drummer. remember songs for the deaf? when all of the sudden a drum-set sounded like it got a pair?  almost every big american rock band has the same drum sound (basically sounding like an e-drum with fx tuned to max, down the puke-alley and the cymbals cut down past the point of recognition).  but apparently that doesn’t happen when the nirvana drummer is mounting his seat:

exhibit a: queens of the stone age – songs for the deaf

exhibit b: probot – std.

exhibit c: them crooked vultures – std.

(and I won’t even start with the raw sound during his nirvana-era)

it’s difficult to place john paul jones into the picture. led zeppelin is more than a name in rock music. jones played his part in history, though apart for fans and music enthusiasts page and plant were zeppelin. dave grohl stated, that playing with jones would be a dream becoming true, yet i seriously doubt the impact he has/had on the bands’ music. see, most songs could be straight from a queens of the stone age record (don’t get me wrong, that isn’t a bad thing). maybe he’s the motivator, grohl and homme need. maybe he’s just another big name to complete the supergroup. either way, the album should go down as the rock album 2009. so yes, go buy. now.

live long and prosper

p.