May 15th..will be a Green Day..is that a pun?

Well, I've been waiting five years for a new Green Day album and here we are. A date is officially set for May 15th of this year. I am definitely looking forward to that.

I'm gonna start by saying that American Idiot came out in 2004, when I was 14, just starting high school, and looking for the foundation of my music tastes. It was through AI that I was able to dive deeper in to the gold mine that is the Green Day library. I now own all but one of their albums, and plan on buying 21st Century Breakdown the day it comes out.

Oh, what's that immediate Green Day haters? Yes, the title is 21st Century Breakdown and it is another punk-rock opera that is stuffed with love songs about living in a post George W. Bush America.

Oh, whats that? They already wrote an album about Mr. Bush? So I've heard. I also heard that it sold 12 million copies and won them a couple of Grammy's. Or is success a bad thing?

Honestly, did you really think Billie-Joe who is pushing 40 was going to to back to writing about teen angst? Don't get me wrong, I love Kerplunk and Dookie, but American Idiot and now 21st Century Breakdown show PROGRESSION! Which is what any band who wants to survive in this shit of what we call an industry today needs. And the boys of Green Day are no morons, they know not you don't fix it if it isn't broken.

I've heard some samples from this album and it leans towards American Idiot part 2.

So, I have no complaints due to the fact that I can listen to that genius album from track one to track 13. (Yes, that's all of them).

I don't mind a revamped AI as long as it shows more progression. Take a listen to the link for this leaked song before you judge anything.

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.triplem.com.au%2Fsydney%2Fmusic%2Fnews%2F%2Fblog%2Fhear-green-days-new-single%2F20090304-2zbq.html&h=017458483b02834f7b459b73e0b17e71

MILK!

Alright, I just want to start off by saying that this movie is one of those, incredibly rare in our time, inspiring movies. It is not very often that I finish a movie and say to myself, "wow, this movie just made me a better person", but thankfully, Milk is one of those movies. It has everything that you want in an inspirational, and at the same time political film.

The story centers around the first openly gay man elected to public office, Harvey Milk. As we learn from the start of the movie, and is re-telling his life into a tape recorder. According to Milk, the tape is for the event of his assassination. It becomes extremely prevalent in the beginning of the film that Harvey Milk was assassinated shortly after, and this tape is his autobiography.

I want to congratulate Sean Penn on his Oscar win for best actor. Although I was pulling for Mickey Rourke, Penn is a logical choice after watching the performance of his career in Milk. He portrays the politician and gay activist perfectly and respectfully. The movie chronicles the rise of Harvey Milk from his movie to gay haven San Fransisco, to his first public speech on top of a soap box, to his last public speech on the steps of city hall. The reoccurring first line of every one of Milk's speeches, "I'm Harvey Milk, and I'm here to recruit you." echos as a signature of a man who lived his life to protect the inalienable rights of all men, and truly believed that all men are created equal.

Milk's perseverance is perfectly portrayed in this movie, shown by his constant loss in his first few attempts to run for office. Milk eventually wins the community advisor position and is faced with the recently drafted proposition 6, which attempts to strip civil rights from open homosexuals. It's Harvey Milk to the rescue when he rallies the gay community against the bigoted California senator and proposition 6. Not to mention falling in love with James Franco, who played an amazing part as Milk's lover. Franco is obviously a tremendous talent and is able to switch from the pot dealing Saul in Pineapple Express to a homosexual character.

I am going to give this Movie an A. It lives up to all expectations and could bring a tear to the eye of even the most ardent anti-homosexual. Sean Penn once again gives the performance of his career and deserves his academy award. I highly recommend this movie, and it has become one of my all time favorites.

Note: Yes, I watch other movies besides horror.

Quarantine..NOT a zombie movie!

Okay here's how I'm gonna start this one off. I'm a classic kind of horror guy. I enjoy zombie movies, and I do not enjoy these new variations on viruses. I'm talking about 28 days later, resident evil, kind of stuff. So, when i picked up Quarantine and checked out the description I was a bit disappointed when I discovered that it was again, a virus, and not a zombie movie. But, I decided to give it a shot.

The movie starts out incredibly boring. It's shot from the point of view of a camera man and anchorwoman making a documentary about firemen. It is akin to Cloverfield and Diary of the Dead. This is the first 20 minutes of the movie. It is incredibly boring and I was almost tempted to fast forward through it. If I wanted to see something about firemen I would have rented Rescue Me. The action kicks in when the firemen are called to a building, with the cameraman and anchorwoman right with them.

Basically, the movie centers around a group of tenants, 2 cops, 2 firefighters, the cameraman, and the anchorwoman trapped inside a building which has been, you guessed it, quarantined due to a virus breakout in the building. This virus looks a lot like rabies, not trying to give it away...but the symptoms include foaming at the mouth, red eyes, and a nasty appetite for biting other people. Plus, the dogs in the building are acting rabid, so conclusions can easily be drawn without the veterinarian character letting all of us know that it is in fact human rabies.

The movie has its share of suspense and gore. The creepiest parts come when a little girl gets infected and goes running around in the dark, attacking people. The sheer thought of being trapped in a building with rabid people, who are disappointingly not zombies although some sustain wounds that would definitely kill them before becoming "rabid", is enough to get some scares out of you. Also, the creep level rises a significant amount when the government thinks its a good idea to shut down electricity to the building. Not to mention the fact that they are sniping residents who are not yet infected, but attempting to climb out of the window. In essence you have to assume about 3/4 of the way into the movie that no one is getting out alive.

The ending of the move is a bit disappointing due to the fact that it is extremely predictable. If you have seen the movie you will understand where I am coming from. The movie overall lacks surprise in the plot. If for example one of the members had survived due to some form of a mutated gene which saves them from the virus, I would have enjoyed it a bit more. But, not this time. The writers decided to kill everyone off, how original.

Overall I'm going to give this movie a C-. The whole 20 minute fireman documentary was totally unnecessary and could have been done in 5 minutes. If you want to skip over parts of a movie, it is poorly made. True it is scary, but the plot is totally predictable, and the fact that the way the people become infected is truly a scatterbrained idea. Zombies would have made much more sense. I mean, does the rabies virus make you invincible to harm. An old woman gets shot 5 times and still seems to be able to attack uninfected people. Is a rabid dog invincible? I think not. If you shoot a rabid dog, or it sustains life threatening injuries, it dies. It does not revive and continue attacking. So, making the "infected" non-undead, this movie just does not make sense to me.

I think I love zombie movies too much.

Pumpkinhead..a bit of a classic.

Due to the fact that I am now home on spring break, I'll have a chance to do some more movie reviews. So, I took a quick trip down to my local blockbuster to see what I could dig up, and after around 20 minutes of searching I had found my choice: Pumpkinhead.

The cover art on the box looked promising enough. I mean, alien like hands clutching a pumpkin, looks pretty promising to me. I had actually passed over this movie on a whole bunch of previous trips due to its chuckle inciting name. Anyway, this time Pumpkinhead would not get away.

As I went to the checkout counter, the girl who scanned the movie took one look at the box and said, "Wow, Pumpkinhead, this was my favorite as a kid." She looked around 26, and the movie came out in 1988, so I trusted her judgement. After calling it a bit funny, as most horror movies are made in that era, she told me that I was going to enjoy it.

So, here's the basic outline of the plot. Irresponsible teens accidentally kill farmer's son, farmer goes to see a witch to resurrect the demon Pumpkinhead, whose job it is to get revenge on the teens for the son's death, farmer realizes hes let loose something out of his control, and let the killing begin.

Pumpkinhead is everything that I expected it to be. True, it is a bit cheesy due to the alien like look of the creature (google it if you are curious). But the effects are great and worthy enough to get a scare out of any kid, and most likely your girlfriend. The plot itself isn't too bad, due to the fact that it is a bit folk tale like. It is overall enjoyable to see the creature wreak havoc on the teens while they try everything to kill it (guns, knives, etc.)

Interestingly enough the creature was designed by the visual effects director on Aliens, which is why it looks so familiar. Anyone who has seen any of the Aliens movies will be able to make a distinct connection right away.

There are a few sequals to the movie, but they probably aren't worth seeing due to some quick research and the discovery that most were straight to television.

Overall, I'm going to give this movie a B. It has its moments where you cringe a bit, and the creature is genuinely creepy and something like that in real life would be very scary. I'll recommend it as one of those movies where you would like someone to be holding on to your arm pretty tightly, and shutting their eyes every time Pumpkinhead is on screen.

"Doing Nothing"

Recently I have realized that Time is a very valuable thing, and maybe it's because I dont have enough of it anymore. I used to have enough time to do anything I wanted, and I really enjoyed what I liked to call "Doing Nothing" See, "Doing Nothing" is a state of mind. It's a way of life for those of us who love to just sit and chill out. Whether it was jamming out with my boys on guitar or just relaxing with a pretty girl, "Doing Nothing" was awesome.

As life goes on i realize that those times get smaller and smaller. You take on more responsibility and you have less time to do what you want to do. I also realize how much I appreciated just sitting around and shooting the breeze with a few friends. At this point in my life, there is just no time for that.

I assume the older I get, the less likely I will be "Doing Nothing".