Pleasant Surprises

movie review: Troy

I'll have to admit that I wasn't at all eagerly anticipating seeing Troy. A friend of mine wanted to see it, so I went. At best, I thought it would be comparable to Gladiator. I was not familiar with the whole story behind Troy, which is apparently based on the poem, The Iliad. Well, I knew about the Trojan Horse. That was it. Oh, and then there's Brad Pitt. He's been in some great movies, but I don't find him a terribly interesting actor. With all those compelling reasons to see the movie, I was pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed the movie. It's visually spectactular, from the magnificent scenes of a fleet of ships off to battle, to the violent(but not gory) battle scenes between the Greeks and the Trojans. Brad Pitt puts in an admirable performance as Achilles who is the Greek's greatest warrior. He's got some terrific fight scenes and displays some geniune athletic skills. Orlando Bloom plays a Trojan Prince who falls in love with the wife of a Sparta King. Eric Bana, also a Trojan Prince, plays the older brother of Orlando Bloom's character. Putting the movie into a modern context, it stands well as a good anti-war film. The film also touches on more personal themes of love and jealousy. I'm really at a loss for words to go into any more detail, but at about 2 1/2 hours long, I can honestly say that there wasn't a moment I was bored. And that's saying alot for movies these days.

Update on my Franz Ferdinand tickets situation: Soundscapes still had tickets for the Franz Ferdinand show in Toronto on June 14, 2004. Got a couple of tickets yesterday!...on a sidenote: I had never been in Soundscapes(actually, I've never really been in that part of Toronto[College St near Dovercourt?]) before and I really liked the atmosphere. Clean, comfortable, and the staff are friendly. They seemed to have all the current indie selections(especially music DVD-wise) but somehow it felt like they didn't have as much of an inventory as, say, Rotate This. Well, they were setting up for a Sixtoo instore(which I couldn't stay for) and had some of the displays pushed up against the back of the store, so maybe all that space made it seem like they had a small inventory. At any rate, Soundscapes had an awesome music DVD selection and I'll likely go back for the Galaxie 500 DVD release if I can't find it at HMV. (ps. was that one of the members of Royal City working there?)

The Thrills have put the finishing touches on new album, according to Pitchfork. The album will feature an appearance from REM guitarist Peter Buck, as well as string arrangements from Brian Wilson's co-writer Van Dyke Parks. Their debut album "So Much For The City" was a pleasant surprise that totally caught me off guard. Irish lads(and fairly young at that) who play sweet Beach Boys inflected, countrified pop music? Well it works and their music doesn't feel forced at all(at least IMO). I've raved about their live show before and they're playing the Toronto Lollapalooza date this August. Oh happy day! (BTW...I just picked up a couple of two-day passes to the Toronto Lollapalooza date...section 304 of the Molson Ampitheatre...can't wait!)

Relive your brit-pop days with the tenth anniversary release of Oasis' "Definitely Maybe - The DVD". From NME.

What better time to go vinyl than with Guided By Voices' triple-vinyl release of Bee Thousand.