House of the Dead

I've seen a lot of tough movies in my short career as a movie critic, simply the video-game-inspired House of the Dead poses a new challenge. I finger a typical review would do small or no good. You�ve seen the commercials with a cluster of young people firing endless rounds into zombies. Well, that�s the flick, minus DMX�s rapping. Sure, there ar a couple of unornamented breasts here and there, but what you see in those 90-second floater is what�s waiting for you at the multiplex.


There�s nothing of substance to discuss. All I accept is a lot of hatred welling inside of me. So, I figured a timeline would work, that way I canful see what went untimely. I didn�t have a watch on me at the cover, but I figured since time passed so slowly, my estimates are pretty accurate


9:35 p.m.�Credits roll. Clint Howard gets third charge. I already don�t find good.


9:37 p.m.�We�re introduced to five characters, who the narrator informs us, will all be dead at the end of the night. Gee, nice way to maintain suspense.


9:46 p.m.�The five characters -- the narrator isn�t among them -- are off to a rave on an island. Now, I�m non a club kid, just raves aren�t held during the day, are they? And do they commonly have corporate sponsorship? (In this case it�s Sega, the makers of the video game that�s the basis for this motion-picture show.)


9:49 p.m.�J�rgen Prochnow plays the ship�s captain. His key? Captain Kirk.


9:56 p.m.�Zombies seem. In a shameless promotional stunt that continues throughout the flick, random clips of the aforementioned video game appear during near of the attacks. The movie is as close to being a commercial for the damned game without itemization store locations and holiday prices.


10:01 p.m.�Three of the characters meet up with three early characters, including the storyteller. (The pic never gives any of these people a personality, so what incentive do I have to do so?) It is explained that zombies stormed the rave �and killed everyone.� One character shows a picture event of the attack, which is so seamless and steady you would have thought Haskell Wexler was the DP.


10:09 p.m.�In his recap of the new Texas Chainsaw Massacre, my honored colleague Sean O�Connell acutely observed that the cast looked too pumped up and pretty to look scared. House of the Dead is another classical example. Everyone looks like they have a Soloflex and uses it regularly.


10:13 p.m.�Coast guard officer appears. She�s armed to the teeth and even sports a accelerator pedal resembling Tony Montana�s �little friend.� Sure.


10:17 p.m.�Extended scene of coast guard firing round of golf after round of ammunition into zombies, while 1 character fights off zombies underwater. At one pointedness she slashes them with a knife. Character wears skintight outfit; where did she keep the tongue?


10:22 p.m.�Flashback of how the zombies got onto the island, which is known as the Island of Death. Begin thinking virtually weekend plans.


10:28 p.m.--Characters weapon themselves (thanks to Captain Kirk�s stash of illegal firearms) in slow motion. Scene doesn�t work because it�s been used way too much, and is best effective as a way to pump up the audience. We don�t know these characters, we don�t caution about these characters, and so pumpitude is non achieved.


10:30 to 10:38 p.m.�A gunplay scene between the zombies and human beings that makes Tarantino�s sword-fighting scene in Kill Bill look like a masterpiece of refinement and transience. Also find more clich�d shots: the bullet shot in slow motion and at least a xII Matrix-style full point and pivot shots. Jump cuts and jittery redaction dominate the tedium.


10:39 p.m.�How did a group of club kids suddenly become expert gun handlers? [Duh! They play the video game House of the Dead! -Ed.] Why in the engagement scene is one of the zombies wearing what appears to be a brand newfangled set of clothes?


10:42 p.m.�Characters get to the house. Four of them work out.


10:45 p.m.�Characters find a lab, which� You experience what picture game they should make into a movie, Spy Hunter. Man, that was a gravid game; it even had a cool soundtrack. [They are. The Rock is in it. 2005. Mark your calendar. -Ed.]


10:49 p.m.�Another clich�d shooting: Characters spring to guard as an explosion goes off behind them. Shot repeated five minutes later.


10:52 p.m.�Head zombi spirit looks to perform experiments on surviving humans. I am reconsidering my Dad�s advice to learn zephyr conditioning amend.


10:54 p.m.�See 10:49 p.m.


10:56 p.m.�Sword fight between female survivor and principal zombie. Female gets stabbed in chest. Male survivor (the teller) cuts off zombie�s head, who continues to fight. Female sees the struggle, gets up, and squishes the cut off head like it�s an oversized gelatin doughnut. I haven�t really ruined anything. No writer, no matter how talented, could trace this scene properly.


10:59 p.m.�The GNI appears to rescue the characters. At this point, I don�t fifty-fifty care what the GNI is. Tagline for the movie is �You won�t even last the nighttime.� They�re right. I barely lasted the movie�s 90 minutes.


The future--You decide not to buy House of the Dead on DVD, missing the deleted scenes, the two comment tracks, and the featurette "Stacked for Zom-bat: The Sexy Babes of House of the Dead Prepare for Battle!"




Swords sponsored by Sega.

Sheryl Crow and Rock the Vote Team Up for Voter Registration Drive

Register Your Friends to Vote and Receive a Free Download of Sheryl Crow's
Critically Acclaimed A&M Records Album 'Detours'

WASHINGTON, Aug. 21 -- Sheryl Crow wants you and your
friends to ballot! Nine-time Grammy award winner and internationally
acclaimed singer/songwriter Sheryl Crow has teamed up with Rock the Vote to
get hoi polloi registered to VOTE! The "Sheryl Crow Voter Registration Drive"
kicks turned today. Current members of the Rock the Vote mailing lean will
have access to a dislodge download of her politically-charged song
"Gasoline". You can too log on to
hTTP://www.rockthevote.com/sherylwantsyoutovote to access the free
download. Additionally, the first 50,000 individuals that get three friends
to record to vote will drive a digital copy of her critically acclaimed A&M
Records album "Detours".

"I have been involved with Rock the Vote since its inception and proud
of the work they have done. There are such critical issues facing our
country, from high gas prices to climate change that we need to do more
then just register to vote, we need to get our friends registered too,"
aforementioned Sheryl Crow.

"We ar thrilled to partner with Sheryl Crow to record young voters,"
said Heather Smith, Executive Director, Rock the Vote. "Bringing together
music and politics is core to Rock the Vote's mission. Working with Sheryl,
we tin reach kO'd to her fans and encourage them to register and encourage
their friends, family and co-workers to do the same."

About Sheryl Crow: Since the release of her 1993 multi-platinum album
"Tuesday Night Music Club," Sheryl Crow has become one of the most
successful female singer/songwriters of her generation, having sold more
than 30 million records worldwide. On Detours, her most recent release, she
explores both personal and global issues, touching upon topics such as
relationships, adoption, breast cancer, the war in Iraq, the environment
and Hurricane Katrina. The aptly-named album deals with the things we
intend to do and the interruptions that send us on unexpected paths. In
addition to her medicine, Sheryl is a devoted advocate for many environmental,
health and humanitarian related to causes. Sheryl has been involved with Rock
the Vote for intimately 18 days, as a spokesperson, instrument panel member, and
activist, exploitation her voice and music to hit, inspire, and activate
millions of offspring Americans to have their voice heard in our democratic
march.

About Rock the Vote:

Rock the Vote's commission is to engage and build the political world power of
loretta Young people in order to achieve progressive change in our country. Rock
the Vote uses music, popular culture and new technologies to engage and
incite young people to register and vote in every election. And we give
loretta Young people the tools to identify, teach about, and take legal action on the
issues that affect their lives, and leverage their power in the political
process. Rock the Vote is creative, effective, and controlled by nobody's
agendum but our own -- we tell it like it is and pridefulness ourselves on being a
trusted source for information on politics. We endow the 44 million edward Young
people in America world Health Organization want to step up, claim their voice in the political
process, and change the way politics is done. http://www.RockTheVote.com




More info

• Britain’s Singing Sensation Connie Talbot Comes to America
• Mp3 music: Glass Casket
• Mp3 music: Tok Tok Tok
• Download Raphael
• Download Hamlet

Prayer

   
Artist: Prayer

   Genre(s): 
New Age
   

---

Discography:


   
 Prayer

   Year:    
Tracks: 10


   
 A Multi-Cultural Journey Of Spirit

   Year:    
Tracks: 10

---

 





High Fuel Prices Put Brakes on Indie Band Tours

Anne Hathaway's ex arrested on fraud charges

NEW YORK (Reuters) - An Italian businessman famed as the long-time boyfriend of actress Anne Hathaway was arrested on Tuesday on charges of operating a fraudulent real estate scheme that he claimed was linked to the Vatican, U.S. authorities said.


Raffaello Follieri, 29, a globe-trotting multimillionaire living in New York, was charged with conspiracy, wire fraud and money laundering in a criminal complaint unsealed on Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.


He appeared in court on Tuesday and was ordered released on an extensive $21 million bail package that included confiscating his passport and restricting his travel to within Manhattan. He did not enter a plea.


Follieri is accused of operating a scheme between 2005 and 2007 in which he led investors to believe that he had close connections with the Vatican that enabled him to buy the Catholic Church's unwanted U.S. real estate properties at a discount, according to U.S. prosecutors.


Follieri and others used the investors' money for expensive clothes and restaurant meals, a $37,000-a-month Manhattan apartment, dog-walking services and other personal expenditures including medical expenses, exotic vacations and privately chartered flights for his girlfriend at the time, according to the complaint. Authorities did not identify the girlfriend.


For the past four years, Follieri had dated Hathaway, who starred in movies "The Devil Wears Prada" and "Get Smart," which was released in the United States last week. The couple were widely reported to have split recently.


A representative of Hathaway did not respond to calls and e-mail seeking comment.


In court, Follieri, dressed casually in jeans, a white shirt and blue pullover, reacted heatedly to U.S. prosecutor Reed Brodsky's arguments he was a flight risk with at least 10 million Euros (about $16 million) in one of several overseas bank accounts, as well as debts of more than $3 million, and had tested positive for opiates. 

Nucleus Roots

   
Artist: Nucleus Roots

   Genre(s): 
Other
   

---

Discography:


   
 Heart Of The Matter

   Year: 2004   
Tracks: 14

---

 

Symarip

   
Artist: Symarip

   Genre(s): 
Other
   

---

Discography:


   
 Skinhead Moonstomp

   Year: 1969   
Tracks: 20

---

 





Paul Nagle

3 major record companies in online music venture with News Corp.'s MySpace

LOS ANGELES - News Corp. [NWS]’s MySpace [website] says it’s launching an online music service as part of a joint venture with three of the largest recording companies. Users will be able to listen to music and watch videos for free and purchase music downloads directly from the Web site.

The popular online hangout said today it is being joined in the venture by Universal Music Group, Sony BMG Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group Corp.

The fourth largest music company, EMI Group PLC, is not part of the deal.

MySpace did not disclose financial details of its new venture.

Called MySpace Music, the service will generate revenue through music download sales, advertising and sales of concert tickets, merchandise and ringtones.




See Also

• Lindsay Lohan In Not Gay Shocker
• Tom Cruise ‘Saved’ By Daughter Suri
• Palm to release O’Day docu

Angelina Jolie's Shocking Drug Den Footage

Footage of Angelina Jolie hanging out in a drug den before transforming herself into an A-list role model has surfaced online.

The actress and humanitarian has become a perfect citizen, adopting underprivileged children from around the world and doing her part for various charities.

However, in the grainy video obtained by The Sun, filmed when Angelina was 23, she sits in filthy drugs den in New York’s Chelsea Hotel next to someone apparently smoking heroin.

She also sports wide-open eyes and dishevelled hair, and she continuously rubs her teeth as she talks about playing sado-masochist sex games where someone is tied down or hurt. “It’s just a cool thing,” she says.

Angelina makes no secret of her wild antics which are now a thing of the past. She admits in the video: “I’ve done coke, heroin, ecstasy, LSD, everything. I gave them up long ago.”

The Faint

   
Artist: The Faint

   Genre(s): 
Rock
   Metal
   

---

Discography:


   
 Wet from Birth

   Year: 2004   
Tracks: 10


   
 Danse Macabre

   Year: 2001   
Tracks: 9


   
 Blank-wave Arcade

   Year: 1999   
Tracks: 9


   
 The Faint Remixes From by Dado

   Year:    
Tracks: 13

---

 





Stephan Eicher

Victor Quijada comes home with his Rubberbandance Group

Victor Quijada comes home with his Rubberbandance Group

PEERING into a photographer's lens, Los Angeles-born Winner Quijada, with his dark eyes, chiseled cheekbones and stylish pitch blackness hair, could be sitting for a Versace ad. Until he starts to move, that is, and his sinewy, streetwise pop and locking flow into impossibly high leg extensions, tossed-off pliés and handstands -- altogether exploding from a torso-torquing body built for amphetamine.

Quijada, the boy of Mexican immigrants, was nicknamed "Rubberband" after he hit the pavement of his James Arthur Baldwin Hills neighbourhood as a pretzel-like break dancer at age 8, and he's come wax circle. In 2002, he founded the Montreal-based Rubberbandance Chemical group. Today the 32-year-old impresario has brought the six-member troupe to his hometown, where it will get its Los Angeles debut this weekend with performances at two local anaesthetic stages, the Irvine Barclay Dramaturgy and Cal State L.A.'s Luckman Field.

With "Elastic band Linear perspective Redux," a collection of full treatment commissioned by an compartmentalization of saltation festivals, the party will showcase Quijada's signature choreography: a fusion of hip-hop, ballet and contemporary movement. That his journey has been an inspiring i -- from street kid to diligent pupil at L.A. County Senior high School for the Humanistic discipline to terpsichorean with Twyla Twyla Tharp and others -- makes his homecoming that much more significant.




















"I left here as I turned 20," the soft-spoken Quijada recalled this week as he sabbatum in the Luckman auditorium clad in fraying jeans, Nikes and a form-fitting black marco Polo. "Visiting my family as voice of this debut makes me very excited. We've done so a great deal around the creation, and I had wanted to come second, merely this was the right time."

Indeed, Quijada, the recipient of a number of choreography awards, says that trade good timing has helped him grab apiece opportunity biography has presented him -- something he ascribes to his parents' immigrant condition.

"There's a sense of superbia and hard work -- not giving up -- even if it wasn't talked about in my fellowship," he said. "This is how it was for me with Twyla, because I don't think I knew what I was acquiring into. I was the merely professional dancer without serious music training, so I took as many ballet classes as I could. There was no turning game."

Rudy Perez, part of the Newly York-based experimental Judson Dance Theatre in the sixties and an L.A. dance fixture since 1979, agrees around Quijada's commitment. Later precept Quijada in high school, Perez invited him to join his postmodern troupe. Two days later, Tharp beckoned.

"Victor had a presence -- it wasn't so much technique or ability -- merely on that point was something deep, an inner soul. He's Latin American, and I think that has a destiny to do with it," says Perez, world Health Organization set his classic 1964 exploit "Countdown" on Quijada several old age ago and incorporated that process into a documentary film of the saame diagnose.

"He was like a sponge," the older choreographer says. "Open and receptive. Obviously Twyla sawing machine the saame thing -- that he had great promise and the ability to instruction the stage and to grow. I was happy when he got into Twyla's caller."

Later on 3 eld with Tharp, Quijada went on to work with choreographer Mary Ann Evans Feld. Just in 2000, he moved to Canada and joined Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal, where he even managed to passe-partout stage dancing by ballet great George IV George Balanchine.

"I felt I had done the Fresh York thing," he explained. "Simply I still had a lot to prove. I had a cow chip on my shoulder and, coupled with the desire to choreograph, I auditioned for Les Grands Ballets, which besides has a choreography workshop. I let rap go and fell in passion with Montreal."

Just once a B-boy, it seems, always a B-boy. II age subsequently, Quijada abandoned the rarefied humankind of ballet and returned -- subsequently a fashion -- to his roots: "I had no plans. I just trusted the universe that I would create my possess work and a terpsichore group. I reconnected with hip-hop in Montreal. It was in the air, in the city, in the clubs."

Quijada credits hip-hop with giving him a sentiency of urgency and the confidence he could create something come out of null. It is, he believes, as integral to his graphic symbol as existence Chicano.

"You do it -- it's now," he said. "Being in those circles in the early '90s gave me the bravery to take risks, to push ahead. I palpate that was my coming into manhood."

Quijada as well continued to read risks. As persona of his crash row in classical music preparation, for example, he explored composers such as Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev and Giuseppe Verdi, and he has adjust several plant to excerpts from "Romeo and Juliet" and "La Traviata." (One is on this weekend's programs.) What on paper power feature sounded strange came electrifyingly alive onstage. A Capital of Massachusetts Globe critic praised Rubberbandance Mathematical group as having "the ball pellucidity and controlled elegance of ballet [and] the birthday suit, athletic exuberance of street dance."

In 2006, Quijada made "Hiatus of Incredulity," a commission from former New House of York City Ballet professional dancer Simon Peter Boal, now artistic conductor of Seattle-based Pacific Northwest Ballet. Boal says that "as a choreographer, Victor gives of himself all and is bore to set to individual ability. The classical repertoire is widening to such an extent that Victor's choreography, though stillness a stretch for a serious music ship's company, is not come out of place."

THESE years, equitation high on with Quijada is Anne Plamondon, Rubberbandance's co-artistic director since 2005. A member of the troupe since its betimes years, she had previously danced with Les Grands Concert dance Canadiens and Netherlands Dance Theatre of operations II. She is as well Quijada's life mate.

"We were both searching when we met," Plamondon said at the Luckman rehearsal. "I had stopped doing pointe work and wanted to do more coeval dance. Winner wanted to create. He has a unique vision, and we both ploughshare dream. The idea was to take break dance and hip-hop roots and visit how far it could go."

Although Quijada no thirster haunts the clubs (nor does he miss wearing leotards), he said he was look forward to expanding his company and "disseminating this data" that is his choreographic trademark.

"It's obvious to me," he said, "that this is the next wave of coeval dance -- adoption from the streets and putting hip-hop on stage. It's a rootage of dOE, and what we're doing, I believe, stern get a big impact."

Chris Watson

   
Artist: Chris Watson

   Genre(s): 
Rock
   New Age
   

---

Discography:


   
 Weather Report

   Year: 2004   
Tracks: 3


   
 Stepping Into the Dark

   Year: 1996   
Tracks: 12

---

Chris Watson was a creation penis of late-'70s/early-'80s techno and synth-pop innovators





Liftin' Spirits

Vera dies on Coronation St tonight

Vera dies on Coronation St tonight

One of 'Coronation Street's most-loved characters, Vera Duckworth, testament pop off during tonight's double instalment.
Viewers will assure hubby

Dublin Film Critics honour Garage

Dublin Film Critics honour Garage

The Tap Shortt-starring rural play 'Garage' has been named the Best Irish people Film of 2007 by the Irish capital Plastic film Critics Band.
In second base place in the Best Irish whiskey Plastic film category was 'Once', followed by 'Kings', 'Small Engine Repair' and 'Shrooms'.
The Oscar-winning 'The Lives of Others' was voted C. H. Best International Film with 'The Assassination of Jesse Henry James by the Coward Henry Martyn Robert Ford', 'This Is England', 'Zodiac' and 'I'm Not There' completing the Top Five.
The late 'The Lives of Others' mavin Ulrich Muhe was named Best Worker with Julie Agatha Christie named Charles Herbert Best Actress for her performance in 'Away from Her' and Jacques Louis David Fincher winning the Best Film director family for 'Zodiac'.
Young Irish people actress Saoirse Ronan was the winner in the Breakthrough Awarding category for her carrying into action in 'Atonement'.




Ira

Pete Doherty jailed for 14 weeks

Pete Doherty jailed for 14 weeks

Pete Doherty was jailed for 14 weeks yesterday after he admitted breaching a court decree designed to cure his do drugs addiction. The Babyshambles frontman was expected to wake up in a electric cell in Wormwood Gown prison house this good morning later on admitting missing appointments with the probation service.His lawyer said tests as part of the gild showed Doherty had still been exploitation category A drugs. It is the longest spell he has faced in slammer since 2003, when he was convicted of burglary. The judgment of conviction means Doherty will miss come out on acting at the Glastonbury festival in June.










Doherty was jailed by district judge Davinder Lachhar at mae West British capital magistrates homage. In October, the evaluate had precondition Doherty a suspended sentence for driving offences and possessing crack cocaine, heroin, ketamine and hemp.Yesterday Doherty's solicitor, Sean Curran, said that patch under the order testing had shown Doherty was taking class A drugs. He added that the singer missed two appointments in Jan and February, though he had kept 12 out of 14 appointments under the parliamentary procedure."He wanted to retain on the monastic order. He had missed appointments, merely he had engaged well with the probation servicing. Probation were non asking for the rules of order to be revoked. From Pete's point of view, he hadn't committed an offense spell on the order," said Curran."I think the order was portion him. Manifestly he didn't want to go to prison. He's for sure non criticising anybody or saying he's been gratingly treated."A program line from the 29-year-old's criminal record society, Parlophone, said: "Today, Simon Peter Doherty was sentenced to a total of 14 weeks in clink for existence in breach of his probation holy Order." It added that a picture at the Royal stag Albert Francis Charles Augustus Emmanuel Charles Francis Hall on Apr 26 would be rescheduled.This is non the first time the ace has been behind parallel bars. In Feb 2006, Doherty spent several days in Pentonville prison after being charged with possessing drugs. A year to begin with he spent tetrad nights in the lapp prison on charges of robbery and blackmail which were later dropped.