February 2018 – Best of Prog and much more.. (PD’s Prog Blog)

Page 1:

GREAT PROG ALBUMS I MISSED from January 2018

PROG ALBUM REVIEWS and ALBUM OF THE MONTH – February 2018

Page 2: GIG REVIEWS – February 2018

Page 3: NON-PROG / NON-METAL HIGHLIGHT – February 2018 

Page 4: FILM and TV

Black Panther

 

I have been against comic movies for a while now, and believe that they are the primary reason for a huge downturn in good quality original writing in today’s cinema. After all why go for a high-risk high-fail option when you could get the almost guaranteed success from a comic movie or a potential sequel?

Black Panther on the other hand had me awed pretty much from start to finish. African accents, culture, language and music are embraced and glorified without ever being preachy. The cultural significance of the movie would be talked about pretty much for years to come, as would its box office collections, but all of it is deserved. Sitting in the cinema hall, I noticed that the profile of the audience was much more diversified than the usual, and if a movie can achieve that, it is something worth celebrating in itself.

But this is not even close to being the only reason the film succeeds, even though it may be the most significant in theory. The casting is fantastic – Chadwick Boseman is solid yet perceptive as the hero, even though he was the only one of the main crew that I hadn’t seen on screen before. The light-hearted scenes are managed very well by Laetitia Wright (Black Mirror S04E06) as the sister, by Andy Serkis as an arms dealer speaking to himself (as it appears initially) in the mirror and by Martin Freeman as a CIA agent, expressing bewilderment at the Wakandan surroundings as he often does at Sherlock‘s quirks on that show. But the best of the bunch is Michael B. Jordan as Killmonger. As Black Panther declares:  he is a monster, driven by hate and neglect and his ideology while wrong is completely understandable.

The action sequences, especially those in Korea, are fabulous. The weapon dynamics, especially of the suit’s kinetic energy buildup, are used logically and to great effect. While visually crisp, as one would expect from a Marvel movie, the action is aided by an alternating and fun African/hip-hop beat background track and original rap songs by Kendrick Lamar. The Jabari arriving to help after an initial rejection is a classic tip of the hat to THAT scene from Lord of the Rings. Perhaps the only weakness I could think of was that of the climax fight between Panther and Killmonger. As someone who was so convincingly overwhelmed in a previous fight, the final knife stab didn’t pack as big a punch as some of the other moments of the film. But this is basically a must see for everyone, irrespective of whether you’re a comic fan or not.

Rating – 9 / 10

 

Altered Carbon

 

Hey! A science fiction series on Netflix! Science fiction has almost become an irresistible genre for me in recent years – One of my favorite movies of the year was the new Blade Runner. Netflix has spent a fortune in the marketing, include a physical exposition in town (Paris), which I unfortunately missed. What I didn’t miss though was the series, catching up on most of it on a long flight.

The first episode starts off with some information overload which serves as the laws that govern the world. Keeping my ears peeled, I didn’t find them especially complex, even though it seemed to be the case at the debut. Cryogenic preservation is given a fancier name and the ‘sleeve’ concept of mind in someone else’s body isn’t exactly groundbreaking either. There are plenty of parallels to the original Blade Runner –  crowded and wet streets resembling those in Asia; brothels and shady bars around every corner; the huge holographic billboards (3D now to look modern); and exploration and manipulation of sexuality, though the show does go overboard with all the nude scenes. 

The first few episodes were excellent and a few scenes got me really hyped up for the series. The very first episode introduces Poe, an AI who embodies a hotel, and his standing behind the bar and speaking to our protagonist reminds me of the guy in The Shining. In one of the best scenes of the show, Poe gambles with fellow AIs, who are bewildered as to why Poe is so fascinated by humans. Byron Mann is quite good as Kovacs, and not just another (ripped) body on screen; his every move and escape initially is inspired by a mysterious, guiding female voice is his head. Laurens Bancroft, the ultra-rich controller in the world needs Kovacs to find out how he was murdered and who was trying to mess with him. Kristin Ortega (Martha Higareda) is the cop trying to find out what’s up with Bancroft and is fun initially with her puta madre rants before getting annoying and downright awful as episodes roll on.

It goes very very wrong in episode seven, where after reuniting with his sister (Reileen or Rei – another awful character), Kovacs recalls his romantic origins with Quell, the previously mysterious lady appearing in Kovacs’ dream. The two females combine to dish out some recycled garbage dialogue and share no chemistry with Kovacs. After that there are plenty of twists involving the sister but I’ll leave it up to you to find out. The final reveal and plot resolution is actually clever but the sisters’ continuous appearances left a bad taste for the rest of the episodes. Multiple Reis appear naked out of virtual embryos at one point, serving no purpose for the audience other than a few hard-ons, before being shot down by Ortega.

Ultimately Altered Carbon is a series that had plenty of potential with its massive budget on visuals, fun hero and interesting story arc, but is let down by a few poorly written and horribly played out characters and  some clunky and cringy dialogue. Still, there are plenty of Sci-fi references and concepts to please the fans of the genre.

Rating – 6.5 / 10

 

Pad Man

I didn’t think I would ever review a Hindi movie on my blog, firstly because I’ve watched very few ones recently and secondly because I would sound like a broken recorder if I ‘d have to list the elements of most Hindi movies that I don’t like – Unnecessary songs contributing to high run-times, exaggerated characters and recycled action sequences.

But I was extremely impressed by Akshay Kumar‘s new movie Pad Man. It is based on the life of Arunachalam Murugunatham, who made sanitary pads affordable and helped relay their benefits to women in low-income regions in India, where female ‘problems’ are often slipped under the sheets. This is an extremely different topic to cover in a Bollywood film – a sensitive one that could lead to backlash in modern society if not treated with the right amount of seriousness yet one which needs to have its light-hearted moments so that it doesn’t turn into a visual textbook lesson. Pad Man achieves the balance extremely well. I’ve changed my outlook a bit in recent years about Bollywood movies – There’s no points comparing them to occidental movies as the percentage of the audience that actually watches the serious Oscar-worthy ones in the country could be counted on one hand. Instead, the country needs movies to highlight social issues and taboos while adding enough comedic exaggeration to not end up too heavy. This is what Aamir Khan‘s Dangal last year and most definitely what Pad Man achieves now.

The story is very linear, but there’s logic behind the steps and hiccups of the man’s endeavors. He’s shown as a self-starter in his thinking and his behaviour – When his wife is uncomfortable on the back seat of his cycle, he constructs one in his welding workshop specially for her. After embarrassing most of his family, he decides to test his hand-made sanitary pad on himself, in what is quite a funny scene, before the whole idea going to dumps soon after. Making segments of the pad machine separately instead of the huge, expensive ensemble shows quick-thinking the man always seemed capable of. The introduction of Sonam Kapoor is perfect and the romance between Kumar and her is subtle and understandable, and so is her decision to give up on the feelings she develops for him during their project.

A final positive word for Akshay Kumar, who puts in a colossal performance as the protagonist. He seems to man on a mission recently – with Airlift, Toilet (which I need to see) and now Pad Man, he has a trio of perfect performances that reminds me of SRK in his heyday. He shifts from serious scenes with his wife to blurting out a comedic quip with a blink of an eye. In what is perhaps his best individual scene, he gives a rather long speech in broken English to the UN on his project, his personality and the issues the country is facing yet you never take feel like taking your eyes off him.

I can already hear a few complains in my head. But, but what about the exaggerated household and love scenes and that weepy performance by Radhika Apte? Let’s just say at no point was a scene exaggerated just for the sake of it – I’m very prone to cringe, even in a few of my favourite Bwood movies, but I didn’t cringe even once during this movie – everything was within acceptable hyperbole limits.

It’s February and I have found my first 10 of the year (including all the music I’ve reviewed) in the most unlikely of places.

Rating – 10 / 10

 

That’s all folks, hope you enjoyed this edition of PD’s Prog Blog and see you next month!

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