Tim Burton has a knack for making even the most outrageous story believeable.  And Disney’s new adaptation of this classic story is no different.  Burton, and writer Linda Woolverton, have crafted a story that easily pulls viewers in and makes suspension of disbelief very easy.  However, as believeable as this rendition was, it is not without its flaws. 

The dark imagery, including a specific scene near the movie’s end, may be somewhat frightening to some younger audiences.  Thus, despite being a Disney film, it may not be entirely suitable for all audiences.  The other major downside to this work is its general lack of originality.  This story has done nothing more than take elements of recent successful fantasy stories (E.g. “Lord of The Rings”, and “The Lion, the Witch, and The Wardrobe”) and tossed them into a pot to make this story.

Another downside to the movie involves not the plot or violence, but the dialogue.  As has been noted by so many critics, Helena Bonham Carter was spot on as the evil Red Queen.  But the problem with her character was that she received so few lines.  When she actually did have lines, they were quite funny.  But the rest of the time, all audiences hear from her is, “Off with their heads”, or some variance thereof.  Carter should have been given more to say than that.

On the oposite end, the actors who played Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum made for plenty of laughs whenever they made an appearance.  And it was impossible not to laugh at the lines spewed out by mega-star Johnny Depp.  While Depp wasn’t the main character, his jokes helped to ease the overly gloomy mood of the story.  Much like his role as Captain Jack Sparrow, Depp has proven that he has great comedic timing.

Depp’s outfit and makeup may be the source of many children’s fear of clowns later in life.  But on the positive, his portrayal, along with the general graphics are actually a shining spot in what is otherwise a typically dark, goth style Tim Burton movie.  The graphics used to portray the not so wonderful Wonderland collectively helped to keep this boat afloat. 

“Alice in Wonderland” may not be among the forefront of the Disney ship, it is one that will at least be remembered.  Whether it is remembered for the good or bad is up to audiences, though.  And considering the seeming identity crisis that Disney is having (Toy Story 3, Cars 2, Tron Legacy, The Princess and the Frog, etc.) which way it is remembered all depends on which way the ship tilts in the vast ocean of movies to come.  Regardless, “Alice In Wonderland” is a movie that is worth at least one watch.

Reckless Kelly may not be the most famous country act in the world, but this 5-piece from Austin is easily one of the best country-western bands under the radar.  The band’s new album, “Somewhere in Time” is proof positive of that.  This is hardly the band’s breakthrough record.  That honor would seemingly belong to the band’s previous effort, “Bulletproof.“  Regardless of that, RK has crafted an album in “Somewhere in Time” that is as strong as, if not more solid than, any other more well known country act.

According to the album’s liner notes, this album has been a decade in the making.  If that’s the case, then the wait has been well worth it.  It is chock full of true classic country-western style songs.  It has songs with classic themes such as love gained,love lost, personal hardships, and even family.  Perhaps the most interesting of these themes is “I Hold The Bottle, You Hold The Wheel.“  This song is a totally different take on the theme of drinking one’s sorrows away.  It’s the same classic theme, just done differently.  A more traditional look at that theme is “Everything I Could Do Wrong.“

Another classic country theme is that of personal hardship.  This is illustrated wonderfully in “Bird on a Wire.“  Another look at hardship comes in “Some People’s Kids.“  this could be argued as a family based song, too.  But considering the line, “With puberty, they paid their dues/the pool hall was the moulin rouge.“  That line probably best sums up the basis of this song.

There’s even a standard cowboy song on the album in “Idaho Cowboy.“  The chorus explains this theme.  “‘Cause he’s an Idaho cowboy, no Tennessee plowboy/He’s wild as the Rockies he rides/A cougar in the canyon, the devils own companion/Ridin’ with a fire in his eyes.“

Whether it’s the theme of love, loss, family, or self, Reckless Kelly has covered it in a strong, solid record that will please both fans of Reckless Kelly, and country fans in general.  So many people complain that country music isn’t what it used to be.  Reckless Kelly has proven that to not be so true with “Somewhere in Time.“  While it may never make this band as big as some other country acts, it will definitely maintain the band’s reputation as one of the best country acts in the world.

The Hierophant card (or priest) in a tarot deck represents an authority figure. He is depicted in various forms from one deck to the next. But one thing that seems to run the same from deck to deck is that the hierophant is a wise sage-like figure. He holds much knowledge, and provides a sense of calm in times of crisis. Perhaps this makes the name of Shooter Jennings’ new band incorrect. However, it seems a fitting figure for the character, Will O’ The Wisp, in the band’s new album, Black Ribbons.

The entire album, while being a concept piece, is esentially a protest piece. Will O’ The Wisp (portrayed by master author Stephen King) is something of a hierophant who is, as described in some variatins, bull-headed, yet there to provide a sense of calm in a very tumultuous time. He is the voice of reason in a seemingly Orwellian future where the government has taken control of virtually everything in America, including the airwaves.

While protest albums are nothing new to the world of music, the manner in whcih this one has been presented is what sets it apart from so many others. The general sound ranges from Pink Floyd to Nine Inch Nails to something in between as the story proceeds. And the ambience set during the interludes with Will O The Wisp helps set the mood of the entire album. His explanation of some songs makes for a strong, fluid transition from one chapter of the story to the next.

The album is nothing like anything that Shooter Jennings has ever done. As a result, this wil likely end up being either Jennings’ breakthrough, or a commercial failure. It will be an album that fans either love or hate. Regardless, he should be commended for doing something so few artists today do; he has stepped far from his comfort zone and created an album that if for sound alone will make audiences “Wake Up” and listen.

It’s been five long years since Brit-pop-jazz musician Jamie Cullum has released a new album.  Whenever any artist or band takes such a long amount of time to release new material, this leads to discussion over whether or not an artist or band has decided to call it a career.  Thankfully, for his fans, Jamie Cullum has finally put that uncertainty to rest with an album that, much like his American counterpart, Peter Cincotti, has moved far from his jazz roots.  Cullum has, instead, opted for a more radio friendly—and at times, experimental—album that may leave even his most hardcore fans scratching their heads in bewilderment. 

Cullum starts off ‘The Pursuit’ with a cover of the classic Cole Porter song, “Just One Of Those Things.“  Perhaps the manifest function of this cover is to remind audiences that while his new album is anything but jazzy, he hasn’t forgotten his roots.  There is another soft jazz style song in “I Think, I Love” for fans of his softer sound.  This one is perfect for a romantic evening.  His poppier sound is not bad, either.  The best of the poppier sound comes in the form of “Wheels”, “You and Me Are Gone”, and “We Run Things.“ The truly ear catching track of the entire album is not so much the cover of Rihanna’s “Don’t Stop The Music”, which seems to be garnering so much attention.  Rather the real oddity of this album is the Jamiroquai-esque, 7-minute plus “Music is Through.“  This song is perfect for a dance club.  And considering his previous work, a song of this nature was a huge risk for Cullum.  It is anything but what his fans have come to expect.  The cover of Rihanna’s “Don’t Stop The Music” is far less of a risk than “Music is Through.“  He makes his rendition of the song his own, and believeable at the same time.  The only low points of this album lie in the melancholy, introspective, “If I Ruled the World”, and “The Move On Song.“  The latter of these songs is available only on the standard edition of the album. 

The separation of the two editions is a major factor that could also affect sales of the album.  Unlike so many other bands and artists that release albums with multiple formats (and little difference between them), Cullum has released this new album in two editions with noticeably different setups for the bonus material.  This includes the bonus tracks on both editions.  The single disc edition includes a trio of songs different from those on the deluxe edition.  It also includes just a pair of music videos. The deluxe edition, on the other hand, includes a full extra dvd that includes a five-song live set from the Montreaux Jazz Festival, and a pair of songs not on the standard edition.  Ultimately, what this does is it forces fans to have to make a decision what they really feel is most important to them.  Some fans may even say that instead of having to choose between the two, they may just wait until the album is re-released with everything on one large set.  This, along with the general lack of publicity for the new album, has the potential to lead to sagging original sales for this release.  Regardless of the outcome, Cullum’s fans have an album that is a solid listen from start to finish.

Kenney Chesney, Keith Urban, and the rest of the eye candy country crooners out there have some new competition.  His name is Josh Turner.  Turner’s been around for a while. But with his fourth album, ‘Haywire’, Turner has officially tossed his hat in the ring, vying for the affections of female audiences worldwide.  Whether it’s his look, or his music, Turner has grown in popularity over the years both with male and female audiences.  Now, with ‘Haywire’, he may have cemented his place in the limelight alonside the rest of the top pop star-like country stars.  The album, in large part, seems to be aimed at female audiences. But it’s also an album that men can enjoy, too.  “Why Don’t We Just Dance” is a prime example of this.  It’s a fun, uptempo song for couples, that even men won’t be ashamed to admit they listen to.  And for the couples out there, Turner’s got a great Marvin Gaye-esque piece in “Lovin’ You On My Mind.“  This song is perfect to set the mood on a romantic night such as Valentines Day, an anniversary, Christmas, or even a birthday.  Men take note of this.  About the only song on this disc that is not directly aimed at women is “Friday Paycheck.“  This one is a song to which both men and women can relate.  And, much like his debut album so long ago, Turner contunes to show his faith.  This time around, he closes out the album with a song displaying his faith, instead of opening the album with it.  “The Answer” is a wonderful gospel song that doesn’t even come across as some preachy gospel type of piece.

For the longest time, country music has never been considered pop music.  But in recent years, stars such as Taylor Swift, Zac Brown Band, Rascal Flatts, and a handful of others have paved the way for country artists to join the ranks of mainstream pop.  Now, Josh Turner may have finally joined the ranks of those stars thanks to ‘Haywire.‘  Since men can use it to set a mood, and women will enjoy it any time (and they’ll swoon over his looks and bass heavy voice), ‘Haywire’ may be considered Turner’s real breakthrough record.  The only downside to this record is that it is presented in two separate formats, much like so many cd’s and DVD’s.  And the deluxe edition of the album offers very little incentive to buy, again, much like so many other cd’s and dvd’s.  The deluxe edition includes 4 bonus tracks, two of which are just live tracks, and the other two being “rarities.“  It also includes the ability to download a small amount of other material.  Again, this is nothing new.  So while ‘Haywire’ may be Turner’s breakthough record, fans would be better off buying the standard edition so they don’t go haywire paying too much for a not so deluxe edition.

Peanuts is without a doubt, one of the greatest comic strips ever created.  And the tv specials that were spawned from the strip are equally enjoyable to this day.  But among the over forty specials created, there is one glaring special that should not have been made.  The special, in question, is ‘You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown.‘  This special originated from an off-broadway play.  Yes, a musical.  And it shows throughout the special.  Charles Schulz did not create this one.  Even if audiences didn’t know off the bat that Schulz had not written this piece, it would become quickly evident that he hadn’t.  This special was originally created by a man named Clark Gesner, in the 1960’s.  According to the bonus feature included in the DVD, “Animating A Charlie Brown Musical”, it wasn’t even until roughly twenty years later this the play was made into this tv special.

The bonus featurette is about the only major positive to this DVD, sadly.  While there are some funny jokes here and there throughout the different segments—this was not one continuous movie.  It was just a bundle of separate skits—the fact that Gesner tried to literally adapt the comic strip to the stage, and then to the small screen, made this one of the lesser enjoyable Peanuts peices.

The only thing that made the bonus feature worthwhile was that producer, Lee Mendelson did try to defend the strip.  As a result, he gave audiences a little known fact in that Black Eyed Peas member, Fergie, (a.k.a Stacy Ferguson) was a member of the Peanuts gang in the 1984 speacial, ‘It’s Flashbeagle, Charlie Brown.‘  The reference was made in Mendelson’s attempt to defend ‘You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown.‘

The bonus featurette included in this dvd made the dvd worth buying for true Peanuts fans and collectors.  But unlike so many of the Peanuts specials that have been released in recent years, this is one of the few that lacks any bonus special(s).  So all audiences really get with this new dvd is the one special, with no bells or whistles.  Just Clark Gesner’s off-broadway play animated for television.  So even if audiences are avid fans and collectors, this is a special that will sadly likely find itself spending more time on a DVD rack than in a DVD player.

Twenty Years.  That is a long time for any sitcom to be on television.  But somehow, Matt Groening and company have survived contract talks, and other obstacles, keeping The Simpsons new and fresh for twenty-one seasons now.  And in celebration of its surpassing twenty seasons, 20th Century Fox has released The Simpsons complete twentieth season roughly eight years ahead of when it would normally have been released.  It seems 20th Century Fox tends to put out one season of this hit sitcom per year.  And while 20th Century Fox may be celebrating a milestone for this show, its twentieth season is anything but worthy of celebration.  Much like most of the show’s seasons after Season Eight, this one has perhaps only a small handful of episodes that truly stood out.  Among them were the likes of “Take my Life Please”, “How The Test Was Won”, “Eeny, Teeny, Maya Moe”, and “Coming to Homerica”.  The remainder of Season Twenty’s episodes feel more like filler than anything else.  Even this season’s Treehouse of Horror was lackluster at best.  The only portion of this year’s TOH that as worthy of praise was the Charlie Brown spoof, “It’s the Grand Pumpkin, Millhouse”.  The writers even go so far in this as to make fun of the sound of the adults talking in the Peanuts specials.

Another negative aspect of this box set lies in its very packaging.  While 20th Century Fox is finally on the right track with its packaging of the Simpsons box sets, it’s still a problem.  The problem with the packaging is just how tightly the discs are put into the set.  The discs are so tightly packed that one can’t help but worry about damaging them with scratching and general surface marring when removing and inserting the discs.  This is something that 20th Century Fox has been doing for a few seasons at least.  Perhaps Fox should take a cue from HBO in how they boxed all five seasons of the classic hit sitcom ‘Get Smart’.  Its packaging both saves space on DVD racks, as well as protects the DVD’s themselves.  The Simpsons box sets only do the prior.

The only real positive to this box set is the “Where’s Waldo”-esque collage of Simpsons characters.  When removing the box itself from its outer covering, fans can open the box wide and look at the vast array of characters created by Groening and his staff over the show’s incredibly long run.  The collage of characters even includes the original Simpsons family, and characters from every season up to today.  Something as simple as the packaging collage can lead to even bigger discussions on the creativity of the show’s writers, among other things.  But sadly, that, again, is about the only true positive to Season twenty of The Simpsons.  Now twenty-one seasons in, one can only wonder just how much longer the show can go on.  At this point, only time will tell.  But what time has already told is that Season twenty of The Simpsons is one that fans can leave on store shelves and watch online at least until it comes down in price if they plan on buying it.

When he took the helm of ‘X-Men 3’, Brett Ratner single-handedly buried the X-men franchise. Joel Schumacher did the same to the Batman franchise in ‘Batman and Robin’ and ‘Batman Forever’. Now, director McG has done the same thing with the Terminator franchise in ‘Terminator Salvation’. The movie starts very abruptly, and fails to fully explain the plotline from there on. The only real backstory that audiences get in this movie comes when the human-like terminator, Marcus, reaches Cyberdyne. There is no mention of what happened between the end of ‘T3’, and the beginning of this movie, years later in 2018. That, along with a general lack of music to help set the mood throughout hindered this movie in a large way. There was music in the movie. But there was so little of it, that it made feeling any excitement next to impossible.

To his defense, at least the story makes fleeting references to John Connor’s mother Sarah, and even his father, who turns up in this movie, only in much younger form. McG uses Kyle tastefully, save for the very end of the movie, which sadly plods on almost as slowly as the rest of the movie. The scripting leaves audiences wondering if Kyle, or even Marcus, would do what they expected. These drawn out expectations only serve to make for a movie that is far too long, and at times somewhat over dramatized.

In his defense, there is one saving grace to ‘Terminator Salvation’. That saving grace is the general cinematography. Those who have seen the first three Terminator movies were shown a much darker, more ominous future than what is presented here. This time out, the movie kind of feels somewhat like Mad Max. The “badlands” type of feel gives audiences a more realistic feel than some overly dark war scene such as shown in ‘T2’. Sadly, though, that is about the only truly shining point to a bore of a movie. Hopefully, now that the rights to the franchise are being sold, another director will take the reigns of what could become a whole new chapter in this franchise, and give it new life.

Author Dan Brown has made a name for himself with his books centered around professor Robet Langdon. Brown’s fans have come to know Langdon as a globe trotting intellectual counterpart to Indiana Jones in a manner of speakiong. The only difference between the two is that in Brown’s works, Langdon doesn’t get the girl. And thanks to Langdon’s trek across Euope in ‘The Da Vinci Code’, Dan Brown has become a household name. But now, in the big screen rendition of his first book, ‘Angels and Demons’, Langdon’s recent adventure has hardly risen to expectations. The resulting harsh critiques are not fully justified, though. This story is entirely different from that of ‘The Da Vinci Code.‘

‘Angels and Demons’ is controversial, but only to a certain extent, as it is a tech-based murder mystery. Yes there is a direct tie to religion. But because so few audiences know about or pay attention to the current search for the alleged “God Particle”, the use of this as a basis for the plot may very well turn many audiences off. The controversy over whether Jesus had a child is much more hard hitting worldwide than how the big bang really happened (or if it happened) to most people. With this in mind, we have the importance of why ‘The Da Vinci Code’ was released before ‘Angels and Demons’. Had the movies been released in tandem with the books, audiences would likely have given ‘The Da Vinci Code’ far less of a chance both on bookstore shelves and in theaters.

The subject matter of ‘Angels and Demons’ isn’t the only factor that may have led to less than spectacular reviews. In the three books about Langdon, Brown is still struggling somewhat with the pacing of his story. This story is a very fast paced work. Because of the plot, it has to move fast. But it moves so fast that it is easy to get lost. It’s the exact opposite of ‘The Da Vinci Code’ in that the latter moved extremely slow. So while the story is interesting in ‘Angels and Demons’, its pace makes the story somewhat difficult to follow. This, combined with the tech-based plot are what have made the story difficult to enjoy. But on the other hand, if this story had been at all similar to ‘The Da Vinci Code’ it would have likely fared far worse than it did. And now, as a result of the mostly lackluster reviews, and ticket sales, one can’t help but wonder if Ron Howard, and his team of writers will attempt a big screen rendition of ‘The Lost Symbol’, or will that book remain ‘lost’.

Classical music, and rock are generally two forms of music that are not associated with one another. But there is one band that has managed time and again, to make classical music appealing to the masses who would otherwise not listen to it.  The band in question is Trans Siberian Orchestra.  TSO has been doing that musical mash-up since its inception.  And now, after an extremely long wait for the band’s new album, TSO has finally released its fifth album, ‘Night Castle.‘  This album is not a Christmas album. Though for fans of the band’s Christmas renditions, a “rocked up” rendition of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker, aptly titled “Nutrocker”, is included as a bonus track on the album’s second disc.

The rest of the album is a touching story about family, friendship, love, and the triumph of the human spirit set against the Khmer Rouge conflict.  If there is one thing that TSO does better than any other band, it is telling a good story.  And, ‘Night Castle’ is no different.  The irony of the album is that the castle in question that Lieutenant Cozier discovers is mentioned for a very short time.  But Erasmus, the man that Lt. Cozier meets in the castle, plays an integral role in how the story unfolds, even though the meeting of the two men is so short.

While the band making its own renditions of classical songs is nothing new on this album, every song fits perfectly to each act.  ‘Night Castle’ is the band’s longest opus to date.  But in listening to the album, it could easily be seen how the band could perform the album in its entirety on stage.  Considering the length of the story, though, performing the show on stage again and again would get rather tiring for the band.  The longest song on this opus clocks in at just over ten minutes.  One other song on the album clocks in at just under ten minutes.  Those two songs, and the overall run time of the album aside, TSO has yet again crafted a work that will please both fans of classical music, and fans of TSO.