I’ve spent all year hating the Chicago Bears for denying the New Orleans Saints their first shot at a Super Bowl appearance. The 39-14 drubbing they laid on the Saints at Soldier Field during the conference championships back in January still stings. But now I’m starting to think the Bears did New Orleans a favor by sparing them an even more horrific beating at the hands of the Indianapolis Colts.  Read the rest of this entry »

The Ultimates 2, Vol. 2: Grand Theft America
Mark Millar, Bryan Hitch
Marvel, 2007
Rating: 4.0

The Boys, Vol. 1: Name of the Game
Garth Ennis, Darick Robertson
Dynamite, 2007
Rating: 3.5

Since superhero stories are at heart power fantasies, themes of unchecked power and corruption come pretty easily – especially in this day and age, in which America’s involvement in Iraq is painted as either selfless heroism or megalomania, depending on which divisive political commentator’s beliefs you subscribe to. That theme reared its potentially unwieldy head in a big way in the previous installment of The Ultimates, and it rests at the very core of The Boys, Garth Ennis’ and Darick Robertson’s gleefully aggressive tale of a covert group tasked with reining in the excesses of the super-powered set.

But in the end, both the first collection of The Boys and the final collection of Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch’s Ultimates run suggest that for both titles, questions of absolute power and responsibility are just so much window-dressing, serving as either justification or garnish for tableaus of violent action calculated to warm the heart of any red-blooded adolescent male.  Read the rest of this entry »

The Simpsons Movie
David Silverman, USA, 2007
Rating: 3.5

Fans of The Simpsons – whether they’re diehards who can rattle off the names of writers and show runners across the program’s lengthy run or more casual, occasional admirers – expect a lot from a big-screen adaptation of the long-running TV show. How could they not? The Simpsons stands as pop-cultural high-water mark for its deft satire, exuberant sight gags, unabashed crudity and, above all, its sharp wit. Even accounting for a recent (and precipitous) decline in quality, its 18-season track record is in itself a remarkable achievement, one with which any 90-minute feature would be hard-pressed to compete.

Inevitably, then, that long-anticipated movie version will disappoint a percentage of its target audience. (How could it not?) But for viewers who can’t list every episode’s title or aren’t familiar with behind-the-scenes personnel like Ian Maxtone-Graham, that disappointment is likely to be minor.
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Interesting news this week regarding casting for 300 director Zack Snyder’s upcoming adaptation of Watchmen. If you haven’t heard: recent Academy Award nominee Jackie Earle Haley (Little Children) is slated to portray the enigmatic vigilante Rorschach; Billy Crudup (Almost Famous) has been tagged for the role of the godlike Dr. Manhattan; relative unknown Matthew Goode (Match Point) takes on the pivotal role of Adrian Veidt/Ozymandias; Patrick Wilson (who also appeared in Little Children) will play the Nite Owl; Dean Morgan (Grey’s Anatomy) stars as the cigar-chomping Comedian; and statuesque actress Malin Akerman (Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle, Entourage, the upcoming Invasion) steps into the stilettos of the comparatively plain Silk Spectre.  Read the rest of this entry »

Live Free or Die Hard
Len Wiseman, USA, 2007
Rating: 3.8

It’s been a pretty hectic couple of months. I was recently promoted to Editor in Chief at the weekly paper I’ve worked at for almost three years, and as you’ve no doubt noticed, Shaking Through has suffered as a result. I’m trying to get caught up with all the movies, books, comics and music I’ve experienced and meant to write about since May, but it’ll take awhile.

As busy as I’ve been, though, my average 13-plus hour day pales in comparison to the kind of overtime New York cop John McClane logs in the latest Die Hard installment. (How’s that for a segue?) Read the rest of this entry »

Good question.

It’s been a quiet few weeks here at Shaking Through World Headquarters for a number of reasons. The first and most important is that I recently changed jobs, leaping headfirst into a very demanding new role that has consumed pretty much every waking weekday hour (and quite a few weekends) since late May. The precious few free hours I’ve had have been spent with my wife, either catching up with each other or working to resolve a sticky home-repair situation.

Meanwhile, Laurence Station, my partner in Shaking Through, has had his own family issues to deal with, along with assorted things having to do with restoring his New Orleans home. Our frequent contributor The Gentleman has been around, doing whatever it is he does, and he’s even sent me a post or two for editing and posting on the site. But I just haven’t had the time.

Anyway, I’ve finally got a little breathing room: Some staffing issues have been resolved, and things are slowly settling down. I hope to be able to post content on a more consistent basis than has been the case lately; we’ll see how it goes. Meanwhile, thanks for your patience.

Transformers
Michael Bay, USA, 2007
Rating: 3.3

Let’s face it: Transformers is stupid. Always has been. Even during its heyday in the ‘80s, it was a hokey piece of pop-cultural flotsam designed to sell toys. The mythology, if you want to call it that, was/is bush league and amateurish. Sentient robots is one thing – call me a dork if you like, but I kind of like that idea. Sentient robots from a planet called Cybertron, who for some reason gather together under the banner of “Autobots” or “Decepticons” – sorry, but your average episode of Teletubbies is better thought-out than that.

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Ah, romance! The world may be falling apart but that doesn’t mean people still can’t find time for love, reconciliation and maybe even a bright and hopeful future. There’s a definite brink-of-disaster underpinning to many of the releases under scrutiny this month, and such underlying tension can only mean one thing: Great artistic rewards for the studious listener. So listen up and enjoy – because who knows when that sky’s finally going to fall?

+ Arctic Monkeys: Favourite Worst Nightmare
+ Battles: Mirrored
+ Björk: Volta
+ Cornelius: Sensuous
+ The Field: From Here We Go Sublime
+ The National: Boxer
+ Patrick Wolf: The Magic Position

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Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End
Gore Verbinski, USA, 2007
Rating: 2.8

Give the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise this much credit, at least: It’s proven clever in its appropriation of character names and plot elements from disparate outposts of piratical and seafaring mythology, from the Flying Dutchman to the Kraken to Davy Jones’ locker to the Kraken. Andbecause the thing does have the word “Caribbean” right there in the title, it’s wisely thrown in a stereotypical voodoo priestess, to boot. But save for the occasional Jolly Roger or walking-the-plank reference, the series has turned a blind eyepatch to a crucial piece of freebooting lore – namely, that pirates are, well, pirates.

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Wilco: Sky Blue Sky
Nonesuch, 2007
Rating: 4.4

Musically, Sky Blue Sky, Wilco’s sixth studio release, is organic and liberated-sounding; lyrically, it continues to explore the themes of alienation and ambiguous communication that have concerned chief lyricist/singer Jeff Tweedy throughout the malleable band’s hurly-burly history. That Sky Blue Sky is among the most sonically unified sets in the Wilco catalog is a credit to the current lineup, born out of the touring players supporting 2004’s uneven A Ghost Is Born. Guitarist Nels Cline and utility man Pat Sansone especially shine throughout Sky Blue Sky, adding funkily emboldened touches to the folksy foundation on which the bulk of these songs rest.

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