Evidently I’m updating this thing in bullet-time…

Having bought my first DVD player coming out of sixth form in the late 90’s, it became my life’s purpose to rebuild my VHS collection of martial arts movies I’d spent years collecting during late night Channel 4 kung-fu seasons and ethically dubious VHS to VHS dub sessions of Video City rentals. Imagine my dismay when DVD releases of my favourite chop-sockies came out with not only terrible dubbing, but awful cover art to boot. To this day, I haven’t bought Dimension Pictures’ release of The Legend of Fong Sai Yuk (aka The Legend) and spit bile each time I look at my Hong Kong Legends version of Armour of God based on the shoddy artwork.  Now with Blu-Ray, these movies have another chance (and arguably last chance with the rise of digital downloads) to get the covers right - what’s wrong with using the original artwork, which are legendary pieces in themselves huh? I mean, just look:

The Street Fighter’s Last Revenge (1974)

Drunken Master (1978)

Game of Death (1978)

I’ll be trawling Spotify for movie soundtracks as a regular item on this blog. Feel free to let me know your finds/faves.  Today, True Grit by Carter Burwell. 

Here’s a lil background:

Source: The Oklahoman

Composer Carter Burwell sets headstrong heroine Mattie Ross’ biblical sense of right and wrong to evocative music with his score for Joel and Ethan Coen’s new film adaptation of “True Grit.”

Based on Charles Portis’ acclaimed 1968 novel, “True Grit” tells the story of indomitable 14-year-old Mattie (Hailee Steinfeld), who hires hard-drinking, gunslinging U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges) to hunt down the coward who killed her father and bring him to Old Testament-style justice. The 1969 movie is best known for winning John Wayne his only Oscar, but Elmer Bernstein’s jaunty, big-as-the-plains score still looms large in the memories of Western film fans.

In keeping with the new film’s more faithful adherence to Charles Portis’ 1968 book, Burwell eschews musical heroics in favor gracefully simple arrangements drawn largely from old gospel songs like “Hold to God’s Unchanging Hand,” “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” and “The Glory-Land Way.”

Many of the 20 short original instrumentals on the soundtrack are based on Anthony J. Showalter and Elisha A. Hoffman’s 1887 hymn “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms,” which Burwell uses as Mattie’s theme and modifies to sound hopeful or ominous as the story requires. The film opens with a spare piano rendition that gives way to a lovely orchestral treatment.

Digital copies of the album include as a bonus track singer-songwriter Iris DeMent’s haunting vocal performance of “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms,” which plays over the film’s end credits. It’s a shame this spine-tingling version isn’t included on all copies of the soundtrack, along with the Johnny Cash cover of “God’s Gonna Cut You Down” prominently featured in the film’s marketing.

Under the Motion Picture Academy’s stringent rules, the “True Grit” score has been deemed not sufficiently original to qualify for Oscar consideration. But Burwell, who has worked with the Coens since their 1984 feature debut “Blood Simple,” makes music that ideally complements the classic story.

1. Fingering is the universal handshake of the ballet community.
2. A nail file (despite its multitude of cinematic uses such as patisserie assisted escape from incarceration) should not be re-purposed for extreme anterior dental hygiene, nor will the implement ever be marketed by L’oreal as a do-it-yourself, powder-free blusher kit.
3. Winona Ryder’s face is a scientifically established biorhythmic reminder of how old you actually are (Beetlejuice was a loooong time ago)
4. Until she does a better movie than Léon: The Professional, it will always feel wrong seeing Natalie Portman doing the on-screen hibbity-dibbity.
5. FFS - Do. Not. Pick. At. It. 

2011 will be the year of the synchronous multi-platform film releases to push internet TV. We’ll be able to watch movies in our homes at the same time they are out at the cinema, meanwhile the multiplexes will suffer financial losses and encourage the emergence of local pop-up mini cinemas (or minima’s) which will focus on the social aspect of the film watching experience. 3D will still be around and will gain popularity via user-generated and pornographic content on video hosting sites once widgetised on 3D capable internet TV’s and not due to major film production studio efforts.

Nope. I have not, and that’s not a reflection of sentiment towards the film, it’s just that I’ve been snowed in for the past three days unable to get my insulin for the diabetic seizure that is my want for going to the cinema whilst everyone else is at home or work. Unfortunately, I’m sure many have been crippled by snow-hypo, which will certainly have some effect on the weekend box-office for the Gareth Edwards directed sci-fi thriller ‘Monsters’ which opened today (blah blah low budget, blah blah Cloverfield/District 9 comparisons blah).  Unless the snow clears up, I doubt I’ll be wheelspinning and corrective steering my way for 20 miles to the nearest Cineworld this weekend unfortunately - which is a shame as I had hoped to have my secretly high, publicly low expectations, exceeded. A quick dig around social media seems to show that I should have no shame in going in with my expectations high as a quick glance of social media mentions for ‘Monsters’ has shown a 40:1 distribution of positive to negative comments in the past 24 hours.

In a sample of 174 comments, 25% had something good to say:

Monsters by Gareth Edwards is very well done. Recommended to fans of Cloverfield, District 9. (@robertliefeld, Twitter)

Gareth Edwards’ Monsters is 1 of the best films about the immigrant experience, and the best featuring cathedral sized squid creatures (@ejrdavies, Twitter)

I recommend everyone checks out Gareth Edwards’ MONSTERS over the weekend. @SightSoundmag concur. Fantastic alien invasion flick. (@cam_guin, Twitter)

74% of comments were ambivalent in tone (I’d say there’s a 40-60 share in ineffectual statements such as “Just saw Monsters at the Ritzy” and ‘balanced’ critiques which make up this figure).

Looking forward to this one…