Stuffage? Is there such a word?

Right then, a bit more for any of you who have yet to peer into my head.

Constantine Soundtrack Review:

Yeah, Soundtrack. The second time in my life I've bought the album to a movie before seeing it. For all you audiophiles out there, this review is for you. Especially of the Soundtrack persuasion.

For those of you wondering why I would do such a crazy thing, I'll tell you two words: Klaus Badelt. This is the composer responsible for creating that wild, sweet and cool soundtrack to Pirates of the Caribbean and the unreleased music for Equilibrium (Damn you, narrow minded record labels! Now I have to acquire it illegally!) Though the great Hans Zimmer may have had more of a hand in PotC than you think ("Overproduced"? What the hell--?) EQ definitely had it's own signature and style.

It's that style that I find in Constantine, and though Bryan Tyler (sic) also had a hand in it, there are a few track where I hear the familiar techno-beat of Klaus' that was omnipresent in EQ (Tracks 3 and 24, Meet John Constantine and [surprise!] Constantine End Credits, respectively). The Bigger orchestral swellings are more reminiscent of James Horner's score for Aliens: creepy high strings and thunderous percussion. The rest is nicely creepy mood music and quite a few downbeat themes for the Orch. to play. When I first saw ol' Klaus' name on the CD, I almost fooled myself into believing more throbbing action cues that Zimmer loves to expound upon. But, realizing the nature of the movie, I should have expected what I got. I don't feel cheated outta my money, in truth, I didn't know what to expect. But in the end, based on soundtrack alone, I'm pleased. The Music's growin on me, I hope the movie proves somewhat more interesting.

"The Relic" Review

I know, its only about 7 years ago that this movie was made, but I just saw it and thought a good review would be necessary. No synopsis, there's www.imdb.com for that.

First off, Gale Ann Hurd producing, creature effects by Stan Winston, and hot babe Penelope Ann Miller? If that was all I got, I'd say SCORE, sounds like an awesome movie. In the end, it's not a bad movie, just not terribly noteworthy. With Ms. Hurd on board, I can expect excellent production values, with such movies as Terminator 1 and 2, The Abyss, and Aliens under her belt, this would seem to be right up her alley. And Stan the man Winston! Creature effects for the Predator, Jurassic Park Dinosaurs and Terminator goodness, what can this man NOT touch and turn into something memorable? The unfortunate answer is this movies creature.

Sore point number 1 for me: The Creature. I applaud the execution of it and the concept story-wise behind it, and the director does a great job of what Ridly Scott did best in Alien, Not showing the whole creature until the end. Whereas whenever I see one of the trademark Aliens from that well known series, I always think "COOL," but this creature, ehhhhh. Just a tad too much emulation with the fangs and the slobber and the goo. I like the "evolution" idea behind it, but perhaps I've seen too many creature-feature scare-fests and been desensitized by what by now is the norm of suspense and scares. It just didn't get me. I was impressed by the CG, though: I don't know how far along CGI was in '97, I was still in middle school and not nearly as devoted to hearing about "Behind the Scenes" as I am now. Still was nice tho.

The plot genuinely held me and was fed out at a good rate. It wasn't brilliant, by any means, but I liked the concept. I won't wreck it for you, you'll just need to watch it. Overall, not bad, it would be a good rent/borrow for a rainy day with nothing to do.

Enough for now, More Later.
- James