Minority Report
Directed by: Steven Spielberg
Written by: Philip K. Dick (short story), Scott Frank and Jon Cohen (screenplay)
Starring: Tom Cruise, Max von Sydow, Steve Harris, Colin Farrell

Say what you want about Steven Spielberg, but he is one of the few Hollywood filmmakers who seems to be putting any thought and care into his movies lately. Maybe he bit off more than he could chew with A.I., but it’s still a beautiful film to watch from a purely aesthetic standpoint. So now bring on his latest project, Minority Report.

It’s another sci-fi story, but unlike A.I. it has plenty of heart-pumping action sequences, and it stars the prettiest man alive, Tom Cruise. What’s not to like?

Minority Report is based on a short story by Philip K. Dick, who also wrote the novel “Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?”, which was the basis for Blade Runner, and the short story “Total Recall”. By starting with source material by Philip K. Dick, you are already one step ahead. The interesting thing about the writing process for this movie is that Spielberg hired Scott Frank to do the screenplay… a man known for his work on Elmore Leonard crime adaptations Get Shorty and Out Of Sight, but who lacked any previous experience with science-fiction. The result is a believable movie that generates suspense and intrigue within a futuristic framework — without calling too much attention to that framework. It feels kind of like a cross between Total Recall, Gattaca and Memento.

The year is 2054, and in the District of Columbia, murder has been basically irradicated thanks to a new preventative police system known as “precrime”. Through genetic experimentation, three human beings were accidentally born with powers of clairvoyance. The strange thing is, the only future visions that they are stricken with happen to be the murders of other human beings… apparently it has to do with the overwhelming pain that homicide inflicts on the fabric of humanity… or something like that. Anyways, by collecting the mental images from these three gifted humans (known as “precogs”), the police force is able to pinpoint the time and location of a future murder, and arrest the perpetrator before the murder happens. Sounds too good to be true, right?

Well, that’s what the federal government thinks, so they send an investigator to track down any flaws that might exist in the precrime system. He gets more than he bargained for when the precogs predict a murder to be perpetrated by none other than John Anderton (Cruise), one of the precrime police officers. Anderton becomes a fugitive as he desperately tries to prove his innocence… the thing is, we’re not really sure if he’s innocent or not. And neither is he.

Minority Report looks very similar in style to A.I. Spielberg really loves working with cinematographer Janusz Kaminski, and together they give the picture a washed-out, grainy look, with soft white lights that shine brightly from the background. It definitely has a film-noir feel at times. The composition of many of the shots in the film are brilliant… there are so many moments where you just wish you could do a freeze frame to admire or analyze one particular image on its own.

Of course, the film just moves so fast at some points, that you are unable to get overly attached to any of the images you see. The action scenes in the film are amazing… Spielberg knows how to keep us on the edge of our seat, and the shot of adrenaline keeps the film from getting bogged down in postulation and theory.

The theory is interesting too though, and that is what makes Minority Report special. The balance of eye-popping action sequences and special effects with thought-provoking ideas is what science-fiction is all about. The plot twists and turns back on itself a few times and it requires a bit of work to keep up, but you are well rewarded for your efforts. Minority Report gets you thinking about issues like law enforcement and predestiny, which of course leads to some religious discussion (this is a Spielberg movie, after all). The idea of the 3 precogs sitting in a tank, churning out psychic visions of murders one after another, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, seems a little preposterous… but this movie makes you believe that it is possible, and by getting you to ignore details like this, it opens you up to see the bigger picture.

As far as the acting, Cruise delivers an adequate performance as himself. He suits the film well, he manages to get us all behind him, which is important. And apparently he did most of the stunts himself, which is somewhat admirable. He’s no Jackie Chan, but he certainly fills the role of a futuristic cop quite well. The lesser known Colin Farrell plays a pivotal role as Detective Ed Witwer, and he does a bang up job too.

I can’t say this movie was absolutely perfect… there were moments near the end where it seemed a little longer than necessary perhaps. But Minority Report is, without question, the best movie that I have seen so far this year, and considering that it is by all accounts a “summer blockbuster”, I think that really says a lot about the quality of this film, and the talent of the people who made it. It’s one of those movies that I just can’t wait to see again. — Sean

Christiansen - Forensics Brothers And Sisters!
(Revelation)

You may not have heard of Christiansen, but you’ve probably heard of their predecessors, whose fingerprints have not been wiped entirely clean from these songs. Upon analyzing clues found at the scene of the crime, you will discover that the band is composed of former members from Slint, Endpoint, and Falling Forward… certainly no strangers to the world of indie rock.

Following up on their first two full length releases, they have signed on to Revelation Records and released this six song EP entitled Forensics Brothers And Sisters. It seems a fitting home for Christiansen, as their latest batch of songs are somewhat reminiscent of Revelation alumnis Quicksand and Sense Field, not to mention recent tourmates, Elliott. On the other hand, there are also traces of Fugazi somewhere in there, but hey– who doesn’t sound like Fugazi nowadays?

The Fugazi influence is most pronounced on the lead off track, “Jhazz Never Spelled So Good”, which features a driving bass line and interspersed guitar work. However, lead singer/guitarist Brandon Bondehagen’s strangely familiar voice prevents the comparison from being taken too far. Other notable songs include “Portable Museums”, with its harder edged sound and guitar breakdowns, and “Transistorized Landscapes”, which combines piano interludes with a Quicksand style chorus.

When you put it all under the microscope, the signs indicate that this release will be turning a lot of heads in Christiansen’s general direction. Pick it up and formulate your own analysis of the evidence today. — Sean

Trans Am
with Adult and Magas
Friday June 14th, 2002 @ The Horseshoe, Toronto

It was another hot, sweaty, jam packed show in Toronto, lending proof to our good friend Chian’s suggestion that virtually every concert in “the big smoke” sells out. Was I surprised that this many people were out to see a Trans Am show? Yes, but then again, it was a Friday night, and it also seemed that a lot of people were there to see the opening bands too.

Speaking of opening bands, the first opener wasn’t a band at all. It was a single man, who goes by the name of Magas. He came up on stage with long wispy hair, wearing a denim jacket and Mark Mothersbaugh-style glasses, pressed a button on his sequencer and began to lurch around the stage in strange, erratic movements. His music consisted of a lot of loud electronic beats and beeps and as he jumped around he would occasionally step up to the mic to scream something. Whether these were random exclamations or actual parts of the songs, I couldn’t be sure. Despite his off-rhythm dancing, Magas did manage to get the people pumped up. Unfortunately he kind of overstayed his welcome too. He kept saying “Wanna hear one more song? We’ve got time for one more, right?” to which a few people in the crowd would respond enthusiastically, encouraging him to launch into another song.

The second band of the night was a two piece outfit from Detroit who are apparently making waves over in the European scene. Adult brought their infectious synth-pop to the stage and for the most part, delivered an enjoyable set. They opened with “Contagious”, which incidentally is probably the most contagious song off their LP, Resuscitation (which many people appeared to be well acquainted with). They had the crowd eating out of their hand, despite the fact that they weren’t all that exciting to watch in a live environment. I guess that is a problem inherent to electronic bands of this nature… the music is cool, but it gets a little boring when they just hit a few buttons on their laptop and sing. The male member of the band did occasionally play some live bass guitar, but he didn’t move around very much. It also didn’t help that they had some technical difficulties early on with their vocoder. As with Magas, their set was a little longer than it should have been and by the end their performance was getting monotonous, and it was becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish between songs. Personally, I was just getting anxious to see Trans Am play.

When Trans Am finally plugged in, it was worth the wait. The numerical progression in band members was thrown out of wack when Trans Am took the stage with an unexpected 4th member who started out by adding extra percussion to their opening song (a vaguely familiar rendition of a song off The Surveillance?) but later added some extra synth in some other songs as well.

They were wearing cheesy 80’s outfits similar to the ones in the photos from their new album TA. It’s always nice to see a band that doesn’t take themselves too seriously. Of course, that doesn’t make their new album any easier to swallow. For someone who was seeing Trans Am for the first time, I kind of wish they hadn’t been touring for this new album, because they played a lot of new material and it wasn’t anywhere near as interesting as the songs from their previous records. I think the rest of the crowd had a similar sentiment, as they were quite excited to hear older songs like “Television Eyes” from the Futureworld album.

Trans Am also played a bunch of great songs off their last album, Red Line, such as “I Want It All”. The band members alternated back and forth between dual synthesizers and a guitar/bass combo, managing a well-balanced mixture of instrumentals and songs with vocals. A definite highlight of the night was their performance of the song “Slow Response” from the Who Do We Think You Are EP, which features a dual bass guitar attack.

Their performance was accentuated by a projection screen in the background, on which they had various 3-d graphics and abstract images being shown. The set ended with the drum kit being lit on fire — a classic rock n roll stunt that never gets old. It was obvious that Trans Am had a lot of fun playing, and I think that even an audience member who had never heard a single Trans Am song before would have enjoyed themselves on this night as well. Their playing was tight, precise and impressive, and the swapping of instruments and along with the extra visuals held everyone’s attention until the very end.

One other thing about this show… it was extremely loud. For once, I actually remembered to wear earplugs, and I was thankful. Others were not so fortunate. So if you have the opportunity to see Trans Am live, don’t miss out… but if you value your eardrums, wear protection! Remember: no glove, no love. — Sean

Scooby Doo
Directed by: Raja Gosnell
Written by: James Gunn, Craig Titley (story)
Starring: Matthew Lillard, Freddie Prinze Jr., Sarah Michelle Gellar, Rowan Atkinson

I will admit that I often carry a bias against live action adaptations of cartoons, especially when it comes to cartoons that were a part of my childhood. I mean, who isn’t a little overprotective of their childhood memories? So when I say I was a big fan of Scooby Doo as a youngster, you can imagine that I must have been rather peeved upon learning that Freddy Prinze Jr, Sarah Michelle Gellar, and (god forbid) Matthew Lillard were going to star in a live action Scooby Doo film. And alongside a computer generated version of Scooby Doo, no less. This project had disaster written all over it.

On the other hand, the screenplay was written by James Gunn, and I was a fan of his work on The Specials, which I thought was a pretty funny flick. I also heard that he considered himself a big fan of the original Scooby Doo cartoon, and that he was trying to be true to the spirit of the series. After reading a lot of favourable reviews following the movie’s initial release (except for Ebert’s bad review, although he claims he’s never seen an episode of Scooby Doo in his life… how is that even possible??) I finally broke down. Against my better judgement, I decided that I had to see the movie for myself.

The outlook was bad before the movie even started… the trailers that were screened beforehand (Stuart Little 2, Spy Kids 2, and Like Mike starring Lil’ Bow Wow) clearly implied that it was a children’s movie that we were about to see. So much for aiming to please the old school fans.

As it all unfolded before me, the first thing that struck me about Scooby Doo was that two of the things I had been dreading actually seemed to be the best part of the movie. Matthew Lillard has annoyed me in his previous acting gigs, but I have to hand it to him here, he is Norville “Shaggy” Rogers. The gravelly voice, the lanky movements, the outfit.. it’s all perfect. The computer generated Scooby also works well. He is able to do all the typical cartoon facial expressions and exagerrated movements, but also looks real enough to fit in with the rest of the live actors. Scooby Doo’s voice is handled adequately by Scott Innes, who also does Scooby’s voice in all the recent Scooby Doo animated movies. Velma, as played by Linda Cardellini, was also convincing. Unfortunately, Freddie Prinze Jr. and Sarah Michelle Gellar are incapable of playing anyone other than themselves. Sure, it’s ironic that they are as stereotypical and two-dimensional as the characters they are supposed to be portraying… but their attempts at humour fall flat every time. Rowan Atkinson was a great addition as the mysterious villain character, and yet he was underused here.

Regarding Gunn’s writing, well, I can’t say there’s much to be impressed with here. The plot for one, was basically non-existent. Just like in the cartoon, you say? Fair enough, but cartoon episodes are only a half hour long, and they don’t cost 12 dollars to see. I also hoped there would be some moments of hilarity, but the extent of his wittiness included a couple of not-so-subtle marijuana jokes, a farting contest, and the line “Let’s Get Jinky With It”. Can you say low-brow? I thought he was capable of much better material than this. He walked the line between paying tribute and spoofing the show, and didn’t really accomplish either one.

The appearance of Scrappy Doo was somewhat amusing, but again, a fairly standard, easy Scooby Doo in-joke. And when you start adding him into the story you’re playing with fire. The joke of Scrappy Doo being an annoying character that no one likes literally came true for me at the end of the movie– well, I guess I shouldn’t give that part away, but you’ll see what I mean.

The plot point involving brainwashed teenagers talking in hip lingo got old pretty quick. It only added to the problematic overload of modern pop culture references. As soon as Sugar Ray made an appearance in the movie I knew Scooby’s fate was sealed. If they really wanted to recreate the feel of the cartoon, they should have tried to redo some of the instrumental music from the original series, instead of going with all these stupid new versions of the theme song that every hot band is just itching to do. Between all the computer effects, cheesy ultra-violet light sets, trendy soundtrack, and ridiculous cleavage, they effectively turned Scooby into one of those damned teen movies… which is precisely what I was worried about in the first place.

Perhaps my biggest complaint is that there was no suspense and no sense of creepiness anywhere in this flick. Sure, Scooby Doo was generally a pretty goofy cartoon, but there was an eerie atmosphere there as well, and the producers of this movie seem to have overlooked it. Other than the Scooby and Shaggy likenesses, this movie has little to offer adult viewers. Kids may still find it amusing, but that’s no consolation to me.

I guess I bit the bullet on this one. I knew that I probably would regret seeing this movie, but I let my curiosity get the best of me. What can I say? Curiosity killed the cat… or the dog, as the case may be. — Sean

Randy - Cheater EP
(G-7/Burning Heart)

After releasing 2001’s The Human Atom Bombs, Randy made it clear that they were taking a musical direction similar to Swedish punk rock peers like The Hives and The (International) Noise Conspiracy. Now that they’ve set off along the path of trashy, lo-fi garage rock, it seems that there will be no turning back… at least not if Cheater is any indication of their future plans.

Cheater is described as an “MCD”, which apparently is nothing more than a fancy European name for an EP. It contains a total of six songs, only three of which are previously unreleased. “Addicts of Communication” is a raw but catchy sing-along that steals the show, unfortunately it is difficult to get excited about since it was taken straight from The Human Atom Bombs. “Dynamite” and “I Won’t Play That Song” are both short, energetic rockers that previously appeared on the I Don’t Need Love CD single.

The remaining three songs are brand new tracks that were recorded here in Canada, probably during their last North American tour. “Cheater” and “I Don’t Wanna Work” are similarly short, rambunctious rock n roll tunes, but their lack of hooks renders them ultimately forgettable. Only on “Stepping Out” do Randy deliver with one of their signature anthemic choruses.

Cheater isn’t a bad little EP… er…MCD, but you have to wonder about the motives behind its release. Given the current musical trends, it may exist solely to generate hype for Randy. Unless you’re a completist, I’d recommend waiting for their next full length instead of putting down money on this. — Sean

The Mars Volta - Tremulant EP
(G.S.L.)

The Mars Volta contains two-fifths of the late great At The Drive-In, but listening to their first release you’d swear the ratio of ATDI members was actually a lot higher. I suppose this proves just how important Cedric’s versatile vocal chords and Omar’s frantic guitar riffs were to the success of their former band.

This is not to say that their new project sounds precisely like a continuation of At The Drive-In; although the similarities are unmistakable, the differences are also not very difficult to pick out. The songs hit hard when they want to, and then expand into longer, dream-like jams as Cedric’s operatic voice soars over the music, often drenched in reverb and spacey effects. The intro to the EP’s final song, Eunuch Provocateur, even features an echoey Pink Floyd-esque guitar riff… it’s probably safe to say that this kind of thing would not have worked as an At The Drive-In song.

Where The Mars Volta progress beyond At The Drive-In is with their incorporation of keyboards and dub elements (which Omar and Cedric have also toyed with in DeFacto, a collaboration with Mars Volta member and former Long Beach Dub All-Star, Isaiah Ikey Owens). It’s difficult to summarize how this affects their sound, but suffice to say that The Mars Volta are a lot more concerned with rhythm than At The Drive In ever were, and also come across as slightly more experimental.

It’s true that the Tremulant EP will probably leave you unsatisfied and craving more, but it clocks in at just under 20 minutes of music, which is pretty reasonable for only 3 tracks. Luckily, the epic, sprawling nature of the songs make this the kind of EP you could play repeatedly for days on end without ever growing tired of it. — Sean