Reviews

It seems that the creators of Bates Motel know exactly what their audience wants, and they’re truly unafraid to give them exactly that. The episodes seem to be growing in the storytelling quality bit by bit, adding to the drama as well as to the depths of the characters. While purists may say that nothing could be a worthy follow up to the original Psycho, Bates Motel is instead aiming for the audience that will appreciate it for what it is.

Last year, Paramount released Battleship, hoping that it would bring in the sort of money they were making with Transformers. Not only was it panned critically, it was also a giant flop domestically. It’s a bit convenient that a week later, they decided to hold back on releasing G.I. Joe: Retaliation until this year, saying that they wanted to convert it to 3D. With the extra time to wash away the bad taste of the other Hasbro product out of the world’s mouths, Retaliation has arrived as a surprisingly fun movie.

A few weeks ago I stumbled across a cute little blog in the online version of a St Louis rag in which the author declared that the only people that respect Rob Zombie records are, "bad strippers;" and that Zombie hasn't made a good record since fucking Soul Crusher, his debut with White Zombie way back in 1987. The title of the piece was "Ten Bands You Never Thought Used to Be Good," and it's predictably cheeky, clever, and for the most part, well informed. But what planet does this kid live on where Rob Zombie has ever released a bad record? I certainly have never heard such a thing, and that goes not only for his solo work, but also for his goddamn classic White Zombie records, and even his latest release, Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor, due to be release in late April. 

Patriotic movies are a really niche genre of film. In examples such as Battleship or Act of Valor, they decide to focus very little on basic things like plot, characters, or even story structure, knowing that there are people who will come to see it simply because of all the American symbolism. You almost feel obligated to like it or else you would be deemed “unpatriotic” because you pointed out all of the gaping flaws in it. Olympus Has Fallen does try to stand out from the rest of its counterparts, but decides to fall into the same over done cliches at the end.