Best MP3 Music

Archive for July, 2009

“It’s a matter of looking chaos in the eye and telling it to F-off,” exclaims Katherine Heigl’s Abby Richter early on in The Ugly Truth.

That’s an important quote for a few reasons.

It doesn’t simply apply to the chaos inherent in Richter’s job as a news show producer for a local Sacramento channel. It’s actually more applicable to modern dating. Dating is chaotic. Many young professionals are fickle and driven by whim. So how do you navigate those murky waters and hold onto your sanity?

You have to understand The Ugly Truth, which according to Mike Chadway—a fantastically funny Gerard Butler—is that all men are dogs. Mike has become the new hot-button risqué anchor of Abby’s news program and she couldn’t hate him more. However, she reluctantly begins to realize that he may be right. After he bets her that he can fix her dating life, she takes some notes from him. That’s when the real fun begins.

The premise of the film is simple but smart. Abby must rely on Mike to get

You don’t wanna fuck with Devildriver.

On Pray for Villains, these five Southern California cowboys from Hell have their six guns drawn and aimed right at the competition. They blow absolutely everyone away too. The international heavy metal hype machine never gave them the credit that they deserve. The media has always been way too busy blowing the horn for the likes of Lamb of God, Mastodon, Suicide Silence and Job for a Cowboy. However, Pray for Villains is a metallic masterpiece—one of the only records from the “New Wave of American Heavy Metal” that you’ll want to play for your kids someday.

Pray for Vilains allows each member of Devildriver the space to shine. These five men all deserve the devil’s due. On tracks like “Pure Sincerity” and “Forgiveness is a Six Gun,” John Boecklin’s drumming simply destroys. He can shift from incendiary, demonic double bass to polyrhythmic madness seamlessly. In fact, Boecklin combines Dave Lombardo’s penchant for percussive pummeling with

There’s something beautifully terrifying about Orphan.

It’s a chilling psychological thriller that creeps inside the viewer’s psyche and doesn’t leave without a fight. Everything goes down in a gorgeous snowy setting, and the white-out isolation contributes to the film’s ere of evil.

From the opening dream scene, it’s hard to turn away. Vera Farmiga’s Kate Coleman is wheeled through an overly sterile hospital. She’s on her way to give birth to her third child. However, something is going very wrong. Director Jaume Collet-Serra’s crawling camera shows a trail of blood on the floor beneath the creaky wheelchair. The blood remains ominous, and what happens next is completely unnerving—setting the tone for the entire film. Jaume’s filmmaking channels Italian horror maestro Dario Argento—juxtaposing dreamy darkness with real life tragedy. The results are pure horror gold.

Back to reality, Kate and her husband John—a fantastic Peter Sarsgaard—have lost their third child Jessica, and

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is the Hogwarts gang’s Empire Strikes Back.

It’s a very dark film, but it’s the most engrossing and enchanting of the series thus far. Director David Yates pulls the audience deeper into Hogwarts than ever before as Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) and Co. start really growing up.

Everyone’s favorite school for witches and wizards is undergoing all kinds of changes, and metamorphosis is the name of the game this time around. Voldemort’s Death Eaters are causing all kinds of trouble, and it’s apparent that the dark lord is closer. So Headmaster Albus Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) employs Harry’s help once more. This time, Dumbledore needs Harry to unearth a secret about Voldemort from returning Potions Professor, Horace Slughorn (Jim Broadbont. However, that’s only the tip of the iceberg. Harry discovers a surprisingly potent potions book that once belonged to the mysterious “Half-Blood Prince,” while his closest friend Ron Weasley (Rupert

“I’m not really famous, but I bet all the famous people know me. I guess I moved past that,” declares Jim Jones” as he exhales a plume of smoke at the beginning of the new documentary This Is Jim Jones.

He’s moved past all of that Hollywood glitter for sure, and that statement rings out louder than shots from a drive-by. If you know who Jim Jones is, you can’t deny him.

Jones is an icon in the best way possible. The rapper/label exec/video exec doesn’t try at all. He just is Jim Jones. Similar to his current masterpiece, Pray IV Reign, there’s no pretense, no bullshit, no façade and absolutely no pulled punches in this film. This phenomenal down and dirty documentary shows Jim to be the man he claims to be—Harlem’s most passionate and determined Capo.

This is Jim Jones traces Jim’s journey from growing up surrounded by drugs and addiction in Harlem to his first taste of success with Cam’Ron and The Diplomats to becoming a solo artist to releasing Pray IV Reign on Columbia

Johnny Depp is the perfect John Dillinger.

In Public Enemies, Depp gives Dillinger depth. He understands the nuances of one of America’s most famous outlaws, and he doesn’t play him as good or bad. He plays him as real.

Dillinger is a complicated cat. During “The Golden Age of Bank Robbery,” he reigned supreme. He was cool, cold and calculated, and Depp embodies each quality flawlessly on film. Much of the character’s complexity comes from how conscious Dillinger was about his public image. In one scene Depp mentions, “The public don’t like kidnapping.” Bank robbery is fine; just don’t steal anybody. Dillinger wanted to be a celebrity, so it makes sense that one of the biggest celebrities on the planet should play him, but Depp brings this iconic figure to life.

His awareness of Dillinger’s intricacies leads to the creation of an intriguing character that will draw viewers back again and again. Depp shows every side of Dillinger—the suave lover, the ruthless killer, the