Blogcritics Author: Aaron Fleming

Book Review: Seagalogy by Vern

Aaron Fleming — Sat, 5 Jul 2008 20:14:58 EDT

A glorification of low culture and a mighty political gesture all in one.
Looking back at a distant youth, my mind strains to remember its first encounter with Steven Seagal. Was it the patchwork of naval fisticuffs known as Under Siege? Perhaps. The pugilistic tremble of Nico/Above the Law? Maybe. The virgin trip to a place called Out in Out for Justice? Again, it’s possible. Actually, although I’m hindered...

Movie Review: The Eden Formula

Aaron Fleming — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 18:30:48 EDT

Jeff Fahey versus corporate greed and a dinosaur.
The Eden Formula begins with an airborne shot of Los Angeles at night, lights flickering blue like a thousand tumbling turns on the freight train to pornsville. Shinning up from the below, shifting into blurs, the mass of glaring blue retches forth, consuming the black of night. A strong tone of bluish valour echoes visual symphonies at the...

Movie Review: Assault on Dome 4

Aaron Fleming — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 16:11:16 EDT

"Die Hard on a space station" with Bruce Campbell.
I’m not the first wayward student of the geek arts to proclaim Bruce Campbell a genius. And I won’t be the last, I assure you. His screen presence mesmerises all who bear witness to it, engendering an outpouring of enthusiastic praise across all creeds and colours, sparking words like god and icon. The self-deprecating sense of humour,...

Movie Review: The Dark Wind

Aaron Fleming — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 00:48:51 EDT

Cultural autonomy, Brechtian boom mics and Lou Diamond Phillips.
The field of cultural consumption is normally one of autonomy. You watch a film, there’s a film, there it is, unravelling before your eyes, stealing sight and blinding at one moment, the same moment, holding the gaze till a time when the light yields to black, the DVD comes slowly to a halt or the projector wheezes to a standstill. The film,...

Book Review: The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles

Aaron Fleming — Thu, 29 May 2008 23:52:07 EDT

A portrait of people lost in the world; bleak but brilliant.
We learn lessons from many different places. I, for one, learned the desert is a harsh, dangerous terrain by watching the Patrick Swayze movie Steel Dawn. Sure, I had an inkling beforehand, how could I not? It’s really dry and has few inhabitants. Fair enough. But it took the sight of Swayze dancing filmic ballet to the sound of Brian...

Movie Review: Living & Dying

Aaron Fleming — Mon, 26 May 2008 14:22:33 EDT

Marvel at the return of Trent Haaga; just ignore everything else.
Reservoir Dogs has a lot to answer for. At the top of the list: chic crime, casual death and morose moral temper look penetratingly through the glaze of the celluloid. The film brought back a violent realism, spun in fibres of cool. But it earned its reputation by creating a knowing, stylised aesthetic, visually compelling and coupled with the...

Music Review: Vanishing Point - The Fourth Season

Aaron Fleming — Sun, 18 May 2008 16:12:59 EDT

Sun-drenched metal melody from Australia.
Sometimes, when summer rays drift down from above and the sky is cloaked in blue, the discerning metal listener feels the urge to switch off the pummelled tones and furious tempos of norm. Cast against the fresh light of sun dancing in the background, juddering and callously wrought sounds born from a Nile album can seem incompatible,...

Travels in Scientology - Part One

Aaron Fleming — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 12:52:53 EST

Aaron Fleming and Duke De Mondo visit London's Scientologists.
By Aaron Fleming & Duke De MondoDuke De MondoBy way of wrasslin’ the afternoon to the pavings, of wringing from the bronchus of the day a couple umber-hued globs of experience and enlightenment, myself and Sir Fleming - being too skint for to hire thon prostitute from down the road for twenty minutes - decided that the very thing to do...

Movie Review: Judge Dredd

Aaron Fleming — Sun, 2 Dec 2007 20:44:11 EST

A melee of judicial philosophy etched across Stallone's fist.
They call him Judge, his last name is Dredd,So break the law, and you may wind up dead.Truth and justice are what he’s fighting for,Judge Dredd the man, he is the law. -- Anthrax, "I am the Law"Like the musical narrative whittled in times past by Anthrax, the year nineteen hundred and ninety-five brought into existence...

Music Review: Arch Enemy - Rise of the Tyrant

Aaron Fleming — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 18:56:06 EST

The "return to form" cliche gets another airing.
Memories of Arch Enemy’s last two albums are warped in a spiral of negativity. Adjectives fasten themselves, locking into the memory, constructing associations running the gamut of banality and lustreless soundscapes. Plodding riffs cascading into groove, frequent gyrations on the screams of recycled rhythms. Protests cite the occasional...