A Review of:
Death Race:
By Kristyn

Check out PCM's Interview with Tyrese Gibson and coming soon director Paul W.S. Anderson!

I recently had the opportunity to check out Death Race starring Jason Statham on DVD and I must say surprisingly I was impressed. I had my doubts about the remake of the 1975 Roger Corman classic, but director Paul W.S. Anderson pulled it off, the stunt driving was amazing and the casting was ideal. Fans of critically acclaimed actress Joan Allen will be surprised to see how well she carried off her role as prison warden for the most hard-core for profit prison.

The plot is this: Set several years in the future, Jensen (Statham) has been framed for the murder of his wife and sent to Terminal Island, one of the most brutal prisons in the country. Terminal Island is run by a warden named Hennessey (Allen) where she makes money off inmates battling it out to the death in armed cars. The races are televised so that individuals can pay money to watch the carnage go down from their living rooms. While, of course, Death Race is not the best film I have ever seen, I have been reading a ton of other reviews that were completely trashing the film, writing it off as a complete failure. While I respect the opinion of others, I can not say that I agree.

This is an action film, it moves like an action film, and the plot is relatively straight-forward. There is not a lot of deep-thought required, but hey, is there necessarily a problem with that? I say no, let Death Race be what it is going to be, chock full of adrenaline and wicked action sequences. There also happens to be this underlying dark element to the film and some humor thrown in for good measure. It is not all that far-fetched a thought to think that in our reality-TV obsessed culture that individuals would pay money to view the kind of carnage presented in Death Race, and to me that is an incredibly frightening prospect.

I think the cast held Death Race together with solid performances from Jason Statham, Tyrese Gibson, and superb supporting roles from, as mentioned, earlier Joan Allen and Ian McShane. From me this film gets a solid A grade in action, which is what I hope it was going for in the first place, definitely not an Oscar contender but a solid action film overall.

A Review of:
Mamma Mia!
By Kristyn

If you are looking for a warm and fuzzy feel good movie this holiday season then you absolutely can't go wrong with a film like Mamma Mia!. The all-star cast of Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, Christine Baranski, and new comer Amanda Seyfried give stellar performances in this wickedly funny romp of a film. Before viewing the film I had read previous critcs bash the vocal abilites of the cast and I simply have to disagree. Some of the musical numbers in the film must have been incredibly difficult to master and I feel the cast did an incredible job. The only actor, who is not much of a singer is Pierce Brosnan, however he fits his role so well in every other aspect, that his lack of singing ability can be forgiven.

The film follows the journey of a daugther who is about to be married and was raised by a single mother, who discovers, after reading her mother's journal that she may have three potentional fathers. She decided to invite all the potential canidates to her wedding, without her mothers knowledge to see which one is indeed her actual father. As you can probably imagine much hilarity and chaos ensues and in the end mother and daughter learn very important lessons about themselves.

It is a shame that when this film was released theatrically it went up against a juggerrnaut of a film like The Dark Knight, because I don't think Mamma Mia! recived the respect it truly deserved. Hopefully with the DVD release which is packed with bonus features, including a totally addictive sing-a-long , audiences will have a chance to share in the magic that is Mamma Mia! and treasure the film for years to come.

This particular installment of the "Classic Albums"
series focuses on what is arguably one of the most
influential albums of the 1980's - Duran Duran's "Rio". Of course, most individuals can remember the almost Beatlemania-esque hysterics when the boys out of Birmingham toured everywhere from Australia and the US, but that particular media coverage obscured a serious band who, as this documentary illustrates, at the time were further
expanding their sound.

Indeed, it is argued that Rio is a watermark of an album for both the band and music/pop culture in that it marked Duran Duran's maturity (or "loss of innocence" as one interview stated it)as a band, while displaying a lush visual bridge from the grittiness of punk to the New Wave/New Romantic movements of the early 80s, especially through unique rock/synth rythms and striking music videos for a fledgling MTV.

Throughout this documentary, the members of the band (Simon LeBon, Nick Rhodes, Andy Taylor, and John Taylor),provide a kind of musical anatomy lesson on how each of "Rio"'s songs were constructed, from guitar riffs to integral use of synthesizers and drum rolls and breaks. One also is told the background to the making of the albums iconic videos, such as "Hungry Like the Wolf" and "Save a Prayer" filmed in Sri Lanka, and the title track, capturd on location on Antigua while the group was on vacation. Extras include further interviews and very nice new live performances by Duran Duran of some of "Rio"s key tracks, filmed in Boston.

This is a very well produced documentary, reccomended not just to a fan of Duran Duran or 80s music, but to anyone who enjoys music and how it is put together.

A Review of:
"Come Together: A Night for John Lennon's
Words and Music"
By: The Couch

The Couch should begin by mentioning that he remembers well when this particular concert/tribute/fund raiser was first aired (writing a short paper for a history class at an
umentioned university), and not knowing quite what to think. Granted, when musicians and their entertainment industry peers unite for a good cause, in this case to raise money for NYC in the wake of the horrors of 9/11/01, the results can be artistically triumphant (witness George Harrison's Concert for Bangladesh, or Live Aid), or appear kind of self-indulgently terrible (for example, a tribute to Burt Bacharach a few years ago, in which the up-and-coming Bare Naked Ladies destroyed the Carpenter's "Close to You").

Ultimately, one cannot fault a group of talented performers (ranging from Alanis Morisette and Dave Matthews to Rufus Wainright and Shelby Lynne)from paying tribute to the works of John Lennon(who devoted the last decade of his life to
spreading a message of peace and simple humanity, and who made New York his home)as a means to help rebuild a shattered city. But when working with legendary music that is familiar to so many, one has to be careful in their adaptation as not to disrespect said "legend" while making a
tune one's own for the night.

Although The Couch was generally not fully impressed with this particular tribute, it was not by any means an utter disappointment. There are
some gems here, such as Stone Temple Pilot's cover of "Revolution", which got quite a bit of radio play at the time, or Lou Reed's "Jealous Guy", or for that matter even a multi-talented Kevin Spacey leading an the ensemble with Lennon's anthemic "Give Peace a Chance/Power to the People". (If The Couch could reccommend a very good Lennon tribute, it would be "Instant Karma" a CD put together to assist Amnesty International with the Darfur crisis. It features solid covers from U2, Green Day, REM, etc. among many others).

Performance critiques aside, how does one view
"Come Together"? Ultimately, this show was a means of paying tribute to John Lennon's spirit in the assistance given to NYC at a time when the world suddenly seemed to become more
complicated and deadlier than anyone could imagine. When one's words are used to provide comfort in the face of dread uncertainty, those speaking or singing said words do not perform in vain.

► Arcade Fire will release the documentary film Miroir Noir online this Monday, December 15th. The film follows Arcade Fire through the making and touring of their 2007 album Neon Bible, documenting the band at their Montreal studio, the making of promotional films and videos, along with live footage and a few short films made on the road. Miroir Noir is directed by Arcade Fire friend and collaborator Vincent Morisset. Vincent was responsible for the interactive video for the song "Neon Bible" and for the Arcade Fire web design. The film was shot by Vincent Moon.