By Jack Silbert on June 23, 2022
EPISODE #492: SUMMER 2022
Aberdeen — “Super Sunny Summer” [ALTERNATE THEME]
Superchunk — “Endless Summer”
Charlotte Rose Benjamin — “Heatstroke Summer”
Jan & Dean — “(When Summer Comes) Gonna Hustle You”
Sonic Youth — “Crème Brûlèe”
They Might Be Giants — “The Summer Breeze”
Sarah Dougher — “Summer”
The Pogues — “Summer in Siam”
HAIM — “Summer Girl”
Prince — “Hot Summer”
Fred Schneider — “Summer in Hell”
The Yum Yums — “Summertime Pop”
Lana del Rey — “White Dress”
The Woods — “Love Me Again Next Summer”
Jack Silbert proudly records the Aquarium podcast in Hoboken, NJ.
Posted in internet radio playlists | Tagged Aberdeen, Charlotte Rose Benjamin, Fred Schneider, Haim, Jan & Dean, Lana Del Rey, Pogues, Prince, Sarah Dougher, Sonic Youth, Superchunk, The Woods, They Might Be Giants, Yum Yums
By Jack Silbert on June 16, 2022
4 stars out of 5
Spoiler alert: This whole movie is about Liz Cheney and her Deep State cronies hiding all the compromised Dominion voting machines on Isla Nublar where they’re attacked by velociraptors and the TRUTH.
OK, no, it’s just another installment in the Jurassic Park/World series, and if we can believe the hype, it’s the final one. (Though I have to imagine in my 70s I’ll be dragging my sorry old ass to the VirtuoPlex for the new reboot Jurassic Universe: Reawakening starring Prince Louis and a genderless android named Glip.)
Speaking of being older at the movie theater: The only reason I saw this movie in Real3D was the showing time was 15 minutes later than a standard screening, and I really had to go to the bathroom. If the price differential is substantial, you absolutely don’t need to see this flick in 3D; there are no coming-at-ya moments and almost no wow-look-at-the-sense-of-depth scenes.
Does it seem like I’m about to give this movie a snarky, negative review? I know, right? And yet, I kind of loved it. Maybe I’m just a sentimental sucker for these Star Wars/Ghostbusters old-cast-meets-new-cast ploys, but, it’s nice! I’m older, they’re older, it works by gum!
Picking up from the fairly dreadful Fallen Kingdom, Earth is slowly becoming Planet of the Dinosaurs and it is not going fantastically well. Chris Pratt and Ron Howard’s daughter are hiding the British tween clone granddaughter of Jurassic Park cofounder Lockwood. (They’re really ramped up the stupid in these Jurassic World movies.) Then, in a none-too-subtle metaphor, giant locusts arrive. Laura Dern (yay!) recruits a looking-better-than-he-has-any-right Sam Neill to find out who’s behind these nasty bugs. Oh and by the way? If they don’t stop the locusts they’ll destroy our food chain and we’ll all die.
So this is all entertaining enough, pretty good, but then here’s the thing: The effects and the action sequences are AMAZING. And they don’t skimp on the thrills through this 2-hour, 20-minute extravaganza. It is literally action-packed. A brilliant truck/motorcycle/dinosaur chase scene had me cheering and laughing. Many sequences were similarly delightful.
Other old pals round out the cast, notably Jeff Goldblum who was in Fallen Kingdom for a hot second, but really gets to be his glorious self here. BD Wong is back as the morally compromised yet still probably a good guy researcher. Isabella Sermon returns as 14-year-old Maisie Lockwood and definitely holds her own; she can roll her eyes and storm off with the best of them. And the villain is… I had to look this up because the character was briefly in Jurassic Park and that was half a lifetime ago… Campbell Scott who is not as young and dashing as you remember him. Except wait, Campbell Scott wasn’t in Jurassic Park. What happened to the original actor? I’ll let you Google it yourself, but, just so you’re prepared: ewwww.
The emotional payoffs are OK, though certainly would’ve been a lot stronger if handled by executive producer Spielberg himself. Still, the end result is the best entry in the series since the original film, and the most fun I’ve had at the movies this year.
Posted in movie reviews | Tagged 20s movies, 90s movies, Jeff Goldblum, Jurassic Park, Jurassic World, Steven Spielberg
By Jack Silbert on June 14, 2022
EPISODE #491: CASEY KASEM TRIBUTE 2022
“The New Scooby-Doo Movies” [ALTERNATE THEME]
U2 — “With or Without You” [Billboard No. 1, 5/16/87 – 5/30/87]
Kim Wilde — “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” [No. 1, 6/6/87]
Bob Seger — “Shakedown” [No. 1, 8/1/87]
U2 — “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” [No. 1, 8/8/87 – 8/15/87]
Los Lobos — “La Bamba” [No. 1, 9/12/87]
Michael Jackson w/ Siedah Garrett — “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You” [No. 1, 9/19/87]
Paul McCartney & Wings — “Let Me Roll It” [long-distance dedication]
Michael Jackson — “Bad” [No. 1, 10/24/87 – 10/31/87]
George Harrison — “Got My Mind Set on You” [No. 1, 1/16/88]
Michael Jackson — “The Way You Make Me Feel” [No. 1, 1/23/88]
INXS — “Need You Tonight” [No. 1, 1/30/88]
Michael Jackson — “Man in the Mirror” [No. 1, 3/26/88 – 4/2/88]
Jack Silbert proudly records the Aquarium podcast in Hoboken, NJ.
Posted in internet radio playlists | Tagged American Top 40, Bob Seger, Casey Kasem, George Harrison, INXS, Kim Wilde, Los Lobos, Michael Jackson, Paul McCartney, Siedah Garrett, U2
By Jack Silbert on June 13, 2022
4 stars out of 5
Maybe you have a work husband or work wife. Back in 2012–13, I had an unemployment wife. Laid-off Lex and I would go to the movies, often ending up at the Crocodile Lounge on 14th Street where you’d get a free pizza with every drink. (Toppings extra.) One of the movies we really loved during that time: What Maisie Knew directed by Scott McGehee and David Siegel.
It’s a decade later, and McGehee and Siegel finally have another film out — Montana Story. And where Maisie was a city tale about parents and the effect of their actions/inactions on a young child, this rural story focuses on mid-20s siblings still coping with Dad’s behavior from long ago. We first meet Cal (Owen Teague), back at the ranch because Dad is dying. Eventually sister Erin (Haley Lu Richardson) shows up, surprisingly — she’d run away 7 years before and hadn’t kept in touch. The trailer led me to believe this was a road picture, with Erin rescuing their old horse and taking him to New York. And that is a plot point, but what this truly is is a family drama I feel many can relate to.
The death of a parent and selling of a home is familiar turf for many of us, or someday will be. (Hell, just the other weekend I saw Peter Holsapple sing his aching song “Inventory” on the very same subject.) Cal is mostly dealing with the logistics and finances, while Erin is paying the emotional cost, revisiting the pain that caused her to flee in the first place. Which leads to confronting the siblings’ unresolved issues.
I’ve only seen Teague in the IT movies and a Black Mirror episode but he hasn’t really stood out for me before. I did think Richardson was solid as the lead in Edge of Seventeen, which I caught on HBO a while back. But both actors are quite good here, Teague laid-back and matter-of-fact, Richardson a tightly-wound type-A, unwilling to unravel.
The filmmakers take their time filling us in on the backstory. For the longest stretch, I didn’t even know if Cal or Erin was older. (Surprise: Smaller, younger-looking Erin is the older one.) Even so while parsing out the details, they still over-rely on exposition. (“Hey medical aide, let me tell you our entire family history.” “Hey sister, during this car ride I’ll tell you of my life for the past 7 years.”) McGehee and Siegel, listen to your own line of dialogue written for the medical aide: “Some things are clear without explanation.”
And yet, as the drama slowly ramps up, I was drawn in more and more. The story is wrapped in the beautiful openness/emptiness of Montana, with a couple of lovely songs by Kevin Morby added in, so the movie looks good, sounds good, and feels real.
Posted in movie reviews | Tagged 10s movies, 20s movies
By Jack Silbert on June 7, 2022
EPISODE #490: FIELDS
The Who — “Happy Jack” [THEME]
Paul Westerberg — “Meet Me in the Meadow”
James McMurtry — “Canola Fields”
Amor de Días — “Bunhill Fields”
Leadbelly — “Cotton Fields”
The Good, The Bad & The Queen — “Green Fields”
Calexico — “Voices in the Field”
The Jayhawks — “Across My Field”
The Lilac Time — “Fields”
The Silver Jews — “Open Field”
The Connells — “Rusted Fields”
The Beatles — “Strawberry Fields Forever”
Sting — “Fields of Gold”
R.E.M. — “West of the Fields”
The Go-Betweens — “Cattle and Cane”
Jack Silbert proudly records the Aquarium podcast in Hoboken, NJ.
Posted in internet radio playlists | Tagged Amor de Días, Beatles, Calexico, James McMurtry, Jayhawks, Leadbelly, Paul Westerberg, R.E.M., Silver Jews, Sting, The Connells, The Go-Betweens, The Good the Bad & the Queen, The Lilac Time
By Jack Silbert on June 1, 2022
4 stars out of 5
In its decade-plus on the air, Bob’s Burgers has never reached the giddy pop-culture heights of The Simpsons, South Park, and that one with the sassy baby and the dog. But, like King of the Hill before it, Bob’s is one of those IYKYK deals, with a secret society of fans. (Well, as secret as a network show with millions of viewers can be.) Mariah and I would give each other subtle BB nods at the record store.
To me, what’s made Bob’s Burgers so special — beyond the sharp, hilarious writing, the uproarious voice acting from so many top comics, and the very real settings — is the show’s huge heart, without ever getting corny. Bob, Linda, Tina, Gene, and Louise truly love each other. As do Jimmy Jr. and Zeke. And Teddy and Bob, though it’s not always reciprocal. And the characters deal with genuine emotions… I was about to list some emotions but it seems like a lot of the show is based on insecurity, and trying to overcome it.
And now we fans are rewarded with a big-screen movie. Like the series, it’s not flashy, and they didn’t really do anything to lure in new viewers (stunt voice casting, etc.). Instead we get a super-sized, slightly better animated, expectedly wonderful episode of the show. They get to stretch out, so we see more of the town. The dialogue is a smidge edgier than you can do on network TV. We get to see almost all of our favorite recurring characters. You knew there’d be songs, but here we get a couple of production numbers. Oh, and there’s a murder. (Don’t worry, things don’t get dark.)
Plus everything you want from Bob’s Burgers: Bob is worried about the restaurant, Tina is worried about Jimmy Jr., Gene has a crazy plan, Louise lures her siblings into something they don’t really want to do, Teddy wants to help Bob and Bob reluctantly agrees, and Linda is rooting everyone on. We get plenty of Kevin Kline as Mr. Fischoeder. And because it’s a movie, the action actually ramps up toward the end. Dare I say it gets exciting? While keeping tongue in cheek.
Two of the show’s producers created the newer animated show The Great North which is cut from a similar cloth of quirky sweetness (albeit with an over-reliance on puns) and I like it a lot, but Bob’s Burgers, as a series and now a motion picture, remains the (burger) king. Well done.
Posted in movie reviews | Tagged 20s movies, Bob’s Burgers, television
By Jack Silbert on May 31, 2022
EPISODE #489: GUNS II
in memory of the 19 students and 2 teachers killed in at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas
The Boomtown Rats — “I Don’t Like Mondays” [ALTERNATE THEME]
Gorillaz — “Kids With Guns”
The Replacements — “Junior’s Got a Gun”
Bob Perry — “The Boy Has a Gun”
The Schramms — “He Has Got a Gun”
Gang of Four — “Armalite Rifle”
The Clash — “Tommy Gun”
The Ramones — “Scattergun”
The Wrens — “Faster Gun”
Spiritualized — “Borrowed Your Gun”
New Order — “1963”
Johnny Cash — “Don’t Take Your Guns to Town”
The Beatles — “Happiness Is a Warm Gun”
Lou Reed — “The Gun”
Ian Hunter — “Gun Control”
Jack Silbert proudly records the Aquarium podcast in Hoboken, NJ.
Posted in internet radio playlists | Tagged Beatles, Bob Perry, Boomtown Rats, Gang of Four, Gorillaz, Ian Hunter, Johnny Cash, Lou Reed, New Order, Ramones, Spiritualized, The Clash, The Replacements, the Schramms, The Wrens
By Jack Silbert on May 24, 2022
4.5 stars out of 5
Hmm, how to get Kavanaugh, Coney Barrett, Thomas, Gorsuch, and Alito to see this movie? Because they really need to. And yet, are any of them bright enough to read subtitles? Happening is a French film which takes place in 1963, though it may as well be Red State America, fall 2022, because abortion is illegal. We meet Anne, a bright college literature student eager to continue her studies. She is very surprised and upset to find out she’s pregnant from a fling. Anne has no intention to keep the baby. But her society has other ideas.
Anamaria Vartolomei is outstanding as Anne. She is strong, independent, unrelenting. Vartolomei deftly shows the changes as sadness and desperation creep in and build up, while never abandoning Anne’s central strength.
Director/cowriter Audrey Diwan, working from a semi-autobiographical novel by Annie Ernaux, ramps up the urgency and tension as the weeks add up, giving the film a race-against-the-clock thriller aspect. But much more so, it’s a psychological exploration. We see a fiercely independent person who realizes she needs help. Tragically, when she does ask for help, she finds that doctors are spooked and/or judgmental, and even close friends don’t wish to discuss the situation.
There are a couple of absolutely harrowing scenes to sit through. And yet, Kavanaugh and Coney Barrett need to Clockwork Orange it with eyelids pried open.
In the AIDS crisis, we learned that Silence = Death. Happening unflinchingly reminds us that it will absolutely be the same for outlawed abortion, and that when matters become the most desperate, we allies will need to step up.
Posted in movie reviews | Tagged 20s movies, abortion, Roe v Wade, Supreme Court
By Jack Silbert on May 24, 2022
EPISODE #488: MONKEYPOX (MONKEYS II)
The Who — “Happy Jack” [THEME]
Los Lobos — “I Wanna Be Like You (The Monkey Song)”
The Beatles — “Everybody’s Got Something To Hide Except Me and My Monkey”
Mighty Mighty — “Everybody Knows the Monkey”
Major Lance — “The Monkey Time”
The Pixies — “Monkey Gone to Heaven”
Peter Gabriel — “Shock the Monkey”
Richard Lloyd — “Monkey”
Barreracudas — “Monkey See, Monkey Do”
The Wedding Present — “I Lost the Monkey”
Eurythmics — “Monkey Monkey”
Ben Cook — “Mike’s Monkey”
Daniel Johnston — “Big Business Monkey”
Optiganally Yours — “Pirates and Monkeys”
Dave Bartholomew — “The Monkey (Speaks His Mind)”
The Mekons — “Poxy Lips”
Jack Silbert proudly records the Aquarium podcast in Hoboken, NJ.
Posted in internet radio playlists | Tagged Barreracudas, Beatles, Ben Cook, Daniel Johnston, Dave Bartholomew, Eurythmics, Los Lobos, Major Lance, Mekons, Mighty Mighty, Optiganally Yours, Peter Gabriel, Richard Lloyd, The Pixies, The Wedding Present
By Jack Silbert on May 18, 2022
4 stars out of 5
Can we please just can it with the multiverse for a hot minute? Couple of pals said, “you gotta see Everything Everything All at Once,” yet three words into the summary I read, it said multiverse, and I was all, thank you but no; myself and my parallel selves are outta here.
The multiballverse was admittedly very cool in that cartoon Spidey movie, and who didn’t enjoy seeing Tobey Maguire (or wait, was that Elijah Wood?) et al. in the recent No Way Home. But at the end of the day it’s really lazy storytelling and needs to stop.
OK then, so why did I purposely go see a movie with Multiverse in its freaking title? Two words: Sam Raimi. The early Spider-Man installments that he directed remain the series’ best. Besides, the modern Marvel Universe could certainly use some of his Evil Dead-style goofiness.
Benedict Cumberbatch’s Doctor Strange is thankfully less wisecracky than he’s been in recent appearances. Though a problem with having such a top-flight actor in this film is that some other cast members pale in comparison. Teen Xochitl Gomez as America Chavez, in a key role as the “asset” Strange needs to protect, gets the job done but doesn’t really stand out. And brace yerselves for a hot take, true believers: Elizabeth Olsen is not a very good actress and doesn’t have much screen presence. Plus, her Scarlet Witch outfit looks like a leftover Rite Aid Halloween costume. Luckily, Rachel McAdams is around to pick up the acting slack. I remain a fan.
The film’s first two thirds are alternately entertaining, needlessly confusing, and stupid. I’ll concede that jumping from universe to universe provides some impressive visual effects. But in the final third, the movie improves from merely watchable to something I honestly felt was very good. And that’s because it finally becomes a Sam Raimi flick. In the early going, it seemed like he was hamstrung by all the Marvel canon that needed to be jammed in. But finally, Raimi gets to be Raimi, and we get a zany horror film with genuine scares and laughs. Elizabeth Olsen truly comes into her own as a limping, bloodthirsty killer. Strange multivitaminverse madness, and very much fun!!
Posted in movie reviews | Tagged 20s movies, Benedict Cumberbatch, Doctor Strange, Rachel McAdams, Sam Raimi, super powers
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