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Why are music movies always so wrong? Not a “musical”, not a concert film, but a drama, comedy, whatever… about musicians. Films can be bad, but they’re usually not “wrong”.

Country Strong. When I heard the title, I had hopes it was about the Incredible Hulk running for president.
Then I heard Gwyneth Paltrow was in it.
I still had hope.
Then I heard that it was about a disgraced country music star, attempting to revamp her career, perhaps bringing some up-and-comers along for the [...]

When I sat down to watch Burlesque I expected to find a vanity project. Cher, tired of playing Vegas to make ends meet, needed to throw herself back into the spotlight. Christina Aguilera never made as big a splash as Britney and wanted more, more, more.
What I found was a beautifully done (gag) engaging [...]

I was attending a meeting of the Old Record Store Clerks Group (ORSCG) several months ago, and after the usual reindeer games (exchanging early 90’s 7-inches of bands nobody ever cared about, comparing casual footwear we’re too old to be wearing, sucking in beer guts to show off our vintage/ novelty [...]

To me personally, taking the cinematic masterpiece that is 8 1/2 and turning it into a musical is something akin to porn movies that use popular mainstream movies as their jumping off point, (i.e. Forrest Rump). But no one else wanted to review it, so who falls on that grenade? [...]

Crazy Heart is your solidly good movie. I was expecting that Jeff Bridges’ acting would be more than adequate in his role as Bad Blake, but he surprised me by being really outstanding. So his Oscar for Best Actor was not one of those rewards for his entire body of work, [...]

Disney makes a much-heralded return to its 2D hand-drawn animation roots with The Princess and the Frog. The return to a medium considered dead (at least in the eyes of dimwitted studio execs) is historic enough. But it also marks the debut of Disney’s first black princess, Tiana. The setting for the [...]

I’m not overly familiar with the 1980 version of Fame aside from its hit title song, but I do know it was rated R, which alone gives it an edge over this slick, but bland PG revamp that, despite periodically producing a beat you can dance to, acts too much like a soap you’d see [...]

Let’s say the electric guitar had never been invented. Pop music wouldn’t be the same. Would all the artists on the Billboard charts ‘lo these many decades have even existed? What colors would be missing from music if you take away how an electric guitar acts/responds through different amplifiers and effects? One answer is the [...]

For me, the first part of Taking Woodstock was pretty awful. You have Imelda Staunton, miscast as Elliot’s mom, screaming about Jews being gassed while she’s trying to get a bank loan, plus a weird over-the-top drama troupe interpretatively prancing, and living in the barn of Elliot’s family’s motel, and if that weren’t enough, poor [...]