Tuesday, December 30, 2008

In which I quickly review Benjamin Button and Cadillac Records

No, no the music well has not run dry over here, I'm working on a few posts but in the meantime:

Benjamin Button

a pretty good Forest Gump wannabe that's well-directed and fun to watch and all. It's set in New Orleans, which is an added bonus for those of us living there, but IF THEY ARE GOING TO CONTINUE TO GIVE EVERY NEW ORLEANEAN A STUPID ACCENT IN MOVIES I WOULD PREFER THE MOVIE INDUSTRY LEAVE OUR CITY ALONE ALTOGETHER (despite the needed cashflow from the insdustry). IT WAS PAINFUL AND THOUGH SOME PEOPLE HAVE A SLIGHT ACCENT HERE, THEY DO NOT SOUND LIKE GONE WITH THE WIND

I give it a 7+ up out of two thumbs.

Anyway

Cadillac Records was absolutely great and you would likely think so too if you check this blog out. It doesn't force feed you the legendary status of these artists, it lets them live the legend and you judge for yourselves. All of the songs featured in the movie were sung by the actors and with the exception of Mos Def's overly silly Chuck Berry, they were all absolutely incredible, particularly the genuinely menacing Howlin' Wolf. One of the few movies that I wish were a little longer so they could stuff it to the gills with nods to Chess fans, flesh everything out and give us some lagniappe. Maybe I'm just a little bitter because after being underrecognized his whole life, Bo Diddley was missing from the movie potentially about him. Also Beyonce's musical performances got a little more attention than the equally worthy male roles, while as mysterious poster "eaw" suggested, her bionic hand was barely shown or something.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

without beyonce's impassioned trills you can't have adrien brody's silent sobbing as he destroys his office (and hopes and dreams) -- this element of the film should by no means have been omitted, but i agree that bo diddley should have appeared too.

eaw