Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page, Tom Hardy, Ken Watanabe, Dileep Rao, Cillian Murphy, Tom Berenger, Marion Cotillard, Pete Postlethwaite, Michael Caine, Lukas Haas
Screenwriter/Director: Christopher Nolan
Running time: 148min
Reviewed by Alistair Radley
4.5/5

“All that we see or seem, is but a dream within a dream…”
Edgar Allan Poe

[Warning – contains spoilers.]

Dreams – our own personal reality or so we believe. What if it was not only possible to share our dreams but for people to enter them and steal our secrets? This is the starting premise for Christopher Nolan’s (Dark Knight) newest high-powered concept film ‘Inception’. With flash production values, great cinematography, high octane action sequences and an excellent cast and script, Nolan continues to delve into the human psyche (see also ‘Momento’, ‘The Prestige’ and ‘Insomnia’).

Rom Cobb (DiCaprio) leads a group of specialists into the minds of business executives – the ultimate corporate raiders, stealing industrial secrets directly from their subconscious, a process they call ‘Extraction’. He is constantly on the move – running from US authorities who want to return him home to stand charges for the death of his wife (Cotillard) and the various corporations he has stolen from. This has left him separated from his young family and his only contact is his father (Caine) who years ago taught him to use his talent of architecture to construct dreamscapes.

Saito (Watanabe) hires Cobb and instructs him to assemble a specialist team in order to plant an idea in the mind of Robert Fischer (Murphy), in order to avoid an international power crisis with the promise that Saito can make all Cobb’s past history ‘go away’ and return him to his old life. Cobb accepts his offer and in classic heist fashion assembles a team consisting of a Point Man – Arthur (‘500 Days of Summer’s – Gordon-Levitt), a Forger – Eames (Hardy), a Chemist – Yusuf (Rao) and, with the help of his father, a new Architect – Ariadne (Page from ‘Juno’) while Saito comes along for the ride to protect his investment.

But dreams are funny things, and while normally there is little danger – even if you ‘die’ you simply wake up, the drugs Cobb’s team use allows them to drill down into deeper and deeper levels of the target – dreams within dreams – where the laws of physics completely change and one wrong move could leave you trapped in your own (or someone else’s) subconscious forever waiting for the elusive ‘kick’ to save you. Add to that, Cobb is haunted by the shade of his dead wife who is determined to sabotage him and his team – and you have a heady, edge of your seat thriller that delivers on virtually all levels.

My only gripe is Inception’s pivotal relationship rings a little hollow and I will need to see it again to see whether or not it succeeds at its own internal continuity, but these are minor criticisms of something that is not an adaptation, not a remake, not a sequel, and not a God-awful vampire flick. Watch for the kick.

Artist: Green Day
Album: Dookie
Released: 1994
Rating: 9.9/10
Reviewer: Colgate

When we think of Green Day nowadays, most people think of the American Idiot album, and most new Green Day fans don’t know much before American Idiot. Well if you are one of these people please listen to me when I say YOU NEED TO AT LEAST OWN DOOKIE! Billie Joe, Mike Dirnt, and Tre Cool are the three guys that are Green Day, and were involved in the Dookie Album.

Dookie was Green Day’s first release off of a Major Record label, and is an album that really defined the mid 90s. When this album was dropped I was five years old, so 16 years of listening to Green Day, three concerts, and a back catalogue consisting of 12 albums released under the Green Day banner, and their side project The Foxboro Hot Tubs, I hopefully can talk about Green Day like a seasoned professional.

Dookie is regarded by some as Green Day’s “curse”, the reason it was their curse is because it set the bar for the sound that Green Day produced. After Dookie came out, another four studio albums were created which in comparison did extremely SHIT! But I are not here to point out this, I am here to tell you the reasons why Dookie should be in your music collection as a classic.

Let us start off with the obvious reasons why. Longview, Basket Case, Welcome To Paradise, She and When I Come Around were the big singles off of the Dookie album, and to this day still get tonnes of airplay around the world. Other than the singles, this album was at the time one of the best sounding albums around. Sound technology at the time of release was shit and even the remastered versions of the albums from that time still have that vintage grain to them, but at the time, Green Day’s sound was clear cut and crisp.

Green Day was classed as Punk Rock because the pace and sound of their music was original and unique at the time and the lyrics that front man Billie Joe Armstrong came up with such as “When masturbation’s lost its fun” from Longview, which set them up for ridicule from the politically correct in the 90s.

This whole album just spews beauty, and is without a doubt the sound most true to Green Day. For years to come after this album, Green Day was critiqued and continue to be critiqued, against their own work. In my eyes nothing will compare to the originality and immatureness of Dookie, however over the years we have watched Green Day mature and become one of the world’s most listened to artists.

If you are sick of hearing the well-known singles then make sure that you do check out Burnout, Pulling Teeth, Sassafras Roots, Coming Clean and my all time favourite F.O.D because it breaks into Tre Cool’s All By Myself as a secret song.

Artist: Nesian Mystik
Album: 99AD
Released: 2010
Rating: 7/10
Reviewer: Colgate

Now when I think of Nesian Mystik I automatically think of their first album Polysaturated and my long long trips from Taupo to Auckland and singing along to every track on there with my pseudo brother John. Polysaturated provided light hearted good upbeat songs, Freshman didn’t really feel right to me; personal preference I guess, and I haven’t actually fully listened to Elevator musik.

Well the boys from Nesian Mystik are back with their 4th album 99AD; yup number four, in NZ music that is a pretty big achievement, to still be selling albums at their 4th attempt. Well it sounds like Nesian Mystik have decided to jump back to a little bit more of the Polysaturated sound and there are some great songs on here.

Single number one off of 99AD is Sun Goes Down, the only way that I can describe this song is SUNNY, it made me think of summer days and driving down a coast line, just the music is so upbeat and happy sound; shivers went up my spine thinking that this may be the next summer hit. With a couple of rap breaks it sort of feels like a newer version of their earlier hit “For the People”

Paradise is another of these typical Nesian Mystik sounds, I love the harmonics that the boys have provided the whole way through their career in the NZ Music scene. Another summer-ish sounding song, it has the upbeat sound to it and these guys really know that their style sells and they aren’t gonna change for anyone.

Now if you enjoyed Nesian Mystik’s more hip hop sounding songs, then don’t worry they are still bringing out songs that you will enjoy, collaborating with Scribe on the track Fresh Boyz, they bring that Canterbury hip hop sound to their album. Star Gazing and Waiting On You will tickle your hip hop bone and keep you happy on 99AD.

Keeping their sound original and not changing really keeps me happy with 99AD, their sound has matured and these boys have definitely got big things coming for them

Check out their album at all good music outlets.

Artist: The Earlybirds

Album: Favourite Fears

Released: 2010

Rating: 7/10

Reviewer: Colgate

The Earlybirds are a new band in the New Zealand Music scene. For those of you who can remember the beginning of this year, The Earlybirds were the band of young men where the drummer had incense burning from his drum kit while he was playing. Their stage presence impressed me, and for what seemed like such a young act their style spoke for itself.

Playing alongside NZ heavyweights such as Pluto and the Feelers during their summer tours you can’t help but think that these guys will go far in NZ and possibly across the ditch in Australia.

Just like during O-Week they kick off their debut album with Cold To the Touch. Starting with an acoustic guitar and Filip’s unique vocals you begin to think this may be a soft song, but not too far in you are greeted with the grace of the entire ensemble of the band and living up to their MySpace explanation of Indie/Pop/Rock sounding music. This song sets the tone for the rest of the Favourite Fears album, and is one of the more upbeat songs on the album.

I Can’t Live Without You is the latest single to be released off Favourite Fears, again Filip’s unique vocals take a major part of this song, and Sean’s drumming really portrays the influences that they have had coming into the music industry, with a more seasoned sound to the album you could be mistaken into thinking that this was their 3^rd or maybe 4^th album to be released.

Other singles that you may have heard are Runaway and I Killed the DJ, two of their more Indie/Pop sounding songs that will keep you entertained with their catchy beats and upbeat sounds.

For a debut album this has been very well produced and a big credit has to go to the mastering and production of this album. It is not your typical grungy sounding debut album where you can hear the grainy sound of guitar amps and the out sound of the drum echo.

Although the sound is moderately the same throughout this album it is a worthwhile listen. Hopefully we see some more great things to come from The Early Birds, a few more albums in the future, and a heap more burning incense.

Their album recently dropped and is available from all good music retailers.

Monty Python: Search for the Holy Grail

5/5

Copies available off trade.me from $14.95

Reviewed by Tabitha Dewe

Old cool movie… this is the epitome of an old cool movie. I’m unsure exactly how many times I have watched this movie, but it never gets old. In fact I think it gets better the more times you watch it.

Those fresh to the brilliance that Monty Python is, NEED to see this movie. Best watched anytime, a small toke beforehand wouldn’t go astray to make the jokes all that more meaningful for first timers. It’s one of those movies you only really appreciate the second time around, and as mentioned before, it only gets better.

Monty Python began as a TV comedy skit series in 1969 and featured the comedy genius of John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin and Graham Chapman. The Search for the Holy Grail was conceived between the third and fourth series of the TV show and the movie was released in 1975. It was produced with a budget of $500,000 and has so far produced a gross revenue of $170 million. Not too shabby.

The movie follows the Knights of the Round Table (see “I wanna go to Malta” on the opposite page for more info about the Knights) with a loose skit-like plot and John Cleese performing at his absolute best.

Those who are close to me know exactly which scenes to play when I am on my death bed so I exit this world with a smile on my face, and if I only had time for one, it would be the castle scene with the lapin de bois (wooden rabbit) and the French Taunter.

Coming in a close second would be scenes such as the father/son inheritance scene “What… the curtains?”, the knights of the forest who say “Nee” scenes, the Camelot musical scene “We dine well here at Camelot/ We eat bread and jam and Spam a lot” and any scene with John Cleese in it, particularly the French Taunter and Tim the Wizard.

I only skip one chapter when I watch this movie and that is where Sir Galahad the Pure (Michael Palin) enters the castle of the virgin handmaids. Call me frigid, I just don’t fnd that scene funny at all. One scene after numerous times watching isn’t at all bad, I really recommend you give this movie a try!!!