2.5 Razors

The Cole Porter Mix

/ / Music News & Reviews
  • Title: Patricia Barber – The Cole Porter Mix

In The Cole Porter Mix singer/songwriter Patricia Barber re-records and reinterprets some of the biggest songs of Cole Porter.  The thirteen tracks include Easy to Love, I Get a Kick Out of You, You’re The Top, Just One of Those Things, and In the Still of the Night.

The album also includes three original songs inspired by Cole Porter including The New Year’s Eve Song and Snow.  The new songs fit easily with the reinterpreted Porter originals.

Although Barber has a nice voice and her obvious joy for these songs comes out, there’s nothing here that makes the collection all that interesting.  Yes, it’s competently done, but why?  For all her energy and style the songs don’t feel fresh and for those who own the original recordings, or even those of other musicians (including Frank Sinatra) covering the hits there’s little here to justify the purchase of another album of the same songs.

This collection is more a novelty than anything else.  Longtime Cole Porter fans may enjoy this, but surely they own most of these songs sung by Porter himself and/or one of the many compilations done by other musicians over the years.  And teens who don’t know who Porter is aren’t going to pick this up either.  Still, it’s not an album to groove to, but as some easy listening background music you could do worse.

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DC Super Heroes: The Filmation Adventures

/ / Home Video
  • Title: DC Super Heroes: The Filmation Adventures
  • IMDB: link

This two-disc set collects 18 cartoons made by Filmation during the late 1960’s and features some of the heroes of DC Comics.  Those familiar with the heroes, and with some affection to them already, should have a good time here as the cartoons give them the respect they deserve.  Though they could have used some better (and more varied) stories – and villains.  Not one of the classic DC baddies, from any of the characters’ rogues galleries, makes an appearance!

These short episodes were mainly used as filler between the big episodes on The Superman Aquaman Hour of Adventure.  There’s only so much you can accomplish in eight minutes, so don’t expect much character development.

Each of the heroes’ episodes have their own intros which, like the show, are narrated by Ted Knight.  More than the actual stories themselves these intros are what really stick out on the collection.

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DC Super Heroes: The Filmation Adventures Read More »

The House Bunny

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: The House Bunny
  • IMDB: link

“But I’m 27.”
“That’s 59 in Bunny years.”

The day after her 27th birthday Shelly (Anna Faris) is thrown out of her comfy lifestyle in the Playboy Mansion.  Her initial forays into the real world aren’t too successful, and an unlikely misunderstanding with a cop (Dan Patrick) even lands her in jail for a night.

Her luck changes with the discovery of an entire street of mini-Playboy Mansions and a new calling as a House Mother for the lamest sorority on campus, the one full of the kind of misfits you only find in movies like this and Sydney White (read the DVD review) and is constantly facing probation, expulsion, or both.  From here you can guess what happens next.

Shelly uses her gifts to turn all the other girls (Emma Stone, Kat Dennings, Katherine McPhee, Dana Goodman, Rumer Willis, Kiely Williams) into hotties, fights off the mean sorority girls across the street (Sarah Wright, Rachel Specter), learns an important lesson about herself, and saves the Zeta’s house in a last-minute impassioned plea to the Dean.

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The House Bunny Read More »

The Authority?

/ / Comics
  • Title: The Authority #1
  • Comic Vine: link

“There’s no world left for them to save.”

Given the events of WildStorm’s big summer crossover Number of the Beast the WildStorm universe is left in shambles and The Authority gets yet another reboot.

The group is back, and that’s the good news.  That they’re stuck in the dismal new world which would make even the sunniest person want to slit their wrists, well, you see, that’s the bad.

The Authority failed.  The Carrier is a big dead rock crashed and fused into the middle of London creating what is referred to as Un-London.  All but the most basic technology is lost and Angie has lost her abilities and techware, monsters rove the streets looking for humans to feed on, and Apollo is forced to live at the very top of the atmosphere to stay alive, apart from his teammates who spend their time looking for those unlucky enough to survived and blaming themselves for the world’s misfortune.  And you don’t even want to know what this reality has done to Jack Hawksmoor.

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Missed It By That Much

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Get Smart
  • IMDB: link

“I am not completely incompetent.”

Maxwell Smart (Steve Carell) is an analyst for CONTROL, a secret underground spy organization.  Although intelligent, Max is clumsy, awkward, and is known for the mind-numbing level of detail he puts into his job.

When CONTROL is attacked by the terrorist organization known as KAOS, the Chief (Alan Arkin) has no choice but to make Max an agent and pair him with Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway), who has recently gone through plastic surgery (the reasons for which make less sense than anything else in the film), for an important mission.

That’s the basic outline of the plot, which never really seems to get developed past the outline stage.  The film instead provides situations for Carell to get himself and 99 both into and out of danger, almost always making a fool out of himself in the process.  Carell is good here, and there’s a nice playful chemistry which slowly develops with Hathaway.  And Alan Arkin, and Dwayne “Stop Calling Me The Rock” Johnson provide some nice moments as well.

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Missed It By That Much Read More »