Brighton Rock is not just another English gangster flick. Sure it seems like that at the go, but as we get deeper into the story the film reveals more about people and society.   In this feature we pick up on Pinkie Brown (Sam Riley) out to scare a rival mob member named Fred. After a brief chase and fight, Pinkie ends up murdering Fred. Pinkie would have gotten away with it too if it weren’t for a young waitress named Rose (Andrea Riseborough) who had a ticket for a photo that showed Pinkie with his victim moments before the murder. If you don’t have the ticket you can’t get the photo. The plot of the film follows Pinkie as he courts Rose in an attempt to keep her from sharing his murderous secret.

Even though Pinkie is trying to keep his deed a secret, he just can’t seem to stay out of trouble. He’s in constant battle trying to murder his own boss to take over his gang as well as the entire town by wiping out another local mob. We later find out that Rose’s boss was a friend of Fred’s and is now suspicious of Pinkie. She starts seeing Pinkie coming around her restaurant and urges Rose to tell what she knows. However, whatever Pinkie did to get Rose on his side works; she professes her love for him.

Aside from English culture this film keeps your attention through Pinkie’s antics and his relationship with Rose. While Pinkie is getting into knife fights and scooter chases with other mobsters, Rose stays by his side. She loves Pinkie and will do anything for him. However, the intriguing part is, Pinkie did nothing to earn her love. He hung around her a bit and did very little talking. At one point he asks her why she’s there and she states simply that she just wants a life. Pinkie took his rouge to the highest level and married Rose. Once married, she moves in to Pinkie’s flat where she isn’t allowed to touch anything. Not listening to orders Rose defies him, goes through his things and steals some money. In fact there were many times during the film it seemed like Rose had a hidden agenda and that she was smarter than the audience was lead to believe. She must realize that Pinkie never really loved her right?

Brighton Rock is set in Brighton, a village in England. Through this film we also get to see glimpses of Brighton’s beautiful pier and countryside. This fact alone makes the film worth seeing. The audience is immersed in English culture of the time. The director (Rowan Joffe) doesn’t change any of the slang that may have been used during the time. It’s up to the audience to figure it out. The film takes place during the 1960s, a time when “Mods and Rockers” were at battle. One particular scene shows Pinkie trying to use a giant Mod-Rocker fight as a distraction of his attempt to murder his mob’s boss. Those historical details make Brighton Rock worth checking out.

Nice guys are often confused with idiots. They have all of the characteristics of an idiot: they are trust worthy, honest and easy going. That’s exactly the description of the idiot in question. In Our Idiot Brother, Ned (Paul Rudd) is a really nice guy, and a hippy on a run of bad luck. After a stint in prison for selling weed to a uniformed police officer, Ned’s girlfriend leaves him and he’s forced to look to his family for help. He moves in with his mother who wants him to wake up early to go button shopping. Unable to put up with this nonsense, Ned goes on to live with each of his three sisters successively. During this time, he manages to ruin each of their lives.  It is in this ruining that he teaches his sisters about themselves.  In essence, he gives them a chance to grow as people and become closer as a family. 

The best part of this film is its cast. Rudd is a great lead and he is supplemented well by Zooey Deschanel who plays his bisexual sister.   Seeing her make out with the always-amazing Rashida Jones only added to the fun of that role. Jones and Deschanel worked great together as a lesbian couple. While they went through some trials because of Ned’s big mouth, it was Ned who helped to heal their relationship.

Elizabeth Banks is Ned’s sister Miranda. Banks plays opposite Adam Scott who always shines on screen regardless of the size of his roll. Banks and Scott play close friends who have never thought of dating each other. Again, Rudd’s loose tongue causes the two to fight. However, they see the light and realize they have loved one another the whole time.

Finally, Ned’s third sister, Liz, (Emily Mortimer) is married to Dylan (Steve Coogan–yet another great casting decision!) Here Coogan portrays an asshole filmmaker who reluctantly puts Ned to work on his documentary. This ends up being a mistake for him because Ned catches him in the nude with the subject of the documentary and then ruins his sister’s marriage by talking about what he witnessed. If you’re not a fan of two girls kissing, you get a Coogan testicle shot to make up for it!

Seeing Rudd’s interactions with this great cast made the film enjoyable. It was also refreshing to see him play a character a bit different from the norm. Regardless of the excellent casting, it seemed as though the director (Jesse Peretz) couldn’t quite decide between making an all-out comedy or a coming-of-age story. The film was very character driven and we see quite a change in Ned’s sisters while Ned’s main goal is to get his dog, Willie Nelson, back from the previously mentioned ex-girlfriend. While I enjoyed the film, I expected it to be funnier. I still think it’s worth catching to see Rudd in a solid lead role with a slew of other great actors.

Randy Jackson, Steven Tyler and Jennifer Lopez serve as judges for the 10th season of American Idol

During the past couple of years, many fans jumped off the American Idol train, partly because the show started to feel so formulaic and the judges seemed as uninterested as the audience. After all, the judge’s shtick got predictable to put it mildly.

There was Randy Jackson, who spent the majority of his music career as a session musician with Journey. The paparazzi certainly weren’t following him around until he became an Idol judge.  Then there was Paula Abdul, who hasn’t had a hit single in over a decade and, although a great dancer, was never known for having an amazing singing voice. Abdul worked out well in the early days because we just weren’t sure which medication would kick in and when.  Lastly, we had Simon Cowell, English music executive who provided the stern, British-Nanny-like judging that made the show so famous.  It was a chemistry that worked, but got weaker with every year.  Audiences waited for the guest judges to save the day, and give us a little extra.  Well, a little extra was all we got.  The last ditch effort of adding Kara DioGuardi or Ellen DeGeneres was less stimulating than a dental office waiting room.

Original American Idol judges Randy Jackson, Paula Abdul and Simon Cowell

Thankfully, the powers that be decided the show needed a major overhaul. This year, they added judges who had actually accomplished something within the music industry.

Jennifer Lopez might not be known for having the best voice, but her multiplatinum status means she knows what it takes to be successful. Jenny from the Block fills Abdul’s shoes, not wanting to hurt anyone’s feelings, but adds credibility because she is still relevant in the industry.

The addition of a legitimate rock star, Steven Tyler, was the best improvement by far.  The first episode alone showed that he will give us what the show has been lacking: street cred.  He is a bona fide, sell out shows, prance around in spandex pants rock star, who sings along, provides back ground table beats for the contestants, and seems truly into the auditions. His antics and insights will keep us entertained.

Jackson’s re-appearance is very much like letting the assistant coach become the interim, it’s just for consistency.

The first two-hour show was watchable and entertaining enough to sway me back on board this Idol train. This time, it may just have enough steam to leave the station.

Back in 2007 when Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino teamed up to release their films Planet Terror and Death Proof together as one package titled Grindhouse, they kept audience members entertained in between the two features with fake trailers directed by the likes of Eli Roth, Rob Zombie, Edgar Wright and Rodriguez himself. One particular trailer struck a chord with Grindhouse fans. Machete was that trailer.

Machete is an ex-Mexican Federale whose wife was brutally murdered by a drug lord that he refused to work for. Machete moves to Texas where he looks to get work until he’s hired by a local businessman, Michael Benz to kill corrupt senator McLaughlin. Machete attends a rally to assassinate McLaughlin but is double-crossed by Benz. This leads Machete on a rampage of blood and destruction and ultimately a showdown with Torrez, the very same drug kingpin that murdered his wife.

What Chris Coffel had to say….

When describing how I feel about Machete multiple words and phrases come to mind: amazing, great, bloody fantastic, over-the-top insanity, terrific, intense. None of these words or phrases even come close to doing the movie justice though. In fact, I don’t believe there’s a word in the English language that can truly describe how perfect this film is.

Danny Trejo excels in the ultimate role written for him as the lead, Machete. No one man is as scary and intimidating, but also kind and good-hearted as Trejo is here. From the opening scene of decapitations and blood shed to the climatic “race war,” Trejo gives his best performance to date.

Along the way we’re treated to boatload of standout characters and severed limbs. Robert DeNiro brings it as always as the shady senator. Michelle Rodriguez shows us what great shape she’s in while Lindsay Lohan is a good sport and willing to make fun of herself. We’re “introduced” to Don Johnson and Cheech Marin proves that even priests in Texas are handy with fire arms.

This film is a must-see as Rodriguez really steps up his game, which is quite the compliment given his previous body of work. Machete is gore filmed but done in a very fun way that would make Lloyd Kaufman extremely proud. To top it off, the plot is very socially relevant given the current immigration situation, especially for those of us living in Arizona and dealing with our terrible, unelected governor.

Machete is great because it can work on multiple levels. The film is shot in a way that makes it a very entertaining splatter fest but also has a very strong message. Sure, the message is a little extreme and over-the-top in Machete, but maybe that’s the best way to shed some light of the going ons in Arizona.

Bottom line, see Machete. Regardless of your stance on political issues such as SB1070, Machete is a great flick that will leaving you needing a towel after it’s conclusion.

What Brett Walker had to say…

I originally sat down to watch Machete thinking that Danny Trejo (Machete) was going to give a nice lecture on how the oversized knife is used as a gardening tool.   However, I was very surprised to find that Trejo’s character adapted the nick name “Machete” because it was his choice of slaughtering device!

Machete is starting a new life in America trying to live free from the corruption he was surrounded by in a cartel-controlled Mexico, when he is given an offer he can’t refuse.

Robert Rodriguez delivers an instant classic with this piece, and every movie fan’s idea of a perfect movie is appeased in this Mexploitation film.

While the film was written very well with a story that had me reeled in waiting for each turn of events, I was also engaged by the vivid sense of action, blood, and gore!

Above that, this fun, over-the-top movie, comes with a message to boot! It takes current events and pokes fun at them in a way only Rodriguez can do it, and sends you on your way with a question to ask yourself.

I plan on seeing Machete multiple times while it’s in theaters, and I think you should to.   Everyone’s a winner!

Back in 2004 Joseph Wilson’s book The Politics of Truth was released. The book is a personal memoir about how Wilson claims to have evidence that Iraq was not trying to buy uranium from Niger despite what former President Bush said in his 2003 State of the Union. It is because of this evidence Wilson feels the identity of his wife, Valerie Plame, was revealed as a CIA operative.  The upcoming released from Summit Entertainment, Fair Game, is based off this book and these events.

The film looks to be intriguing. Very rarely do spy and government betrayal movies appeal to me, however, with Naomi Watts and Sean Penn starring as Wilson and Plame, my interest peaks. Add in the fact that the film is based off real events and not a work of fiction and I become more inclined to see it. Plus, anything that may have an anti-Bush/Dick Cheney feel is always nice.

Check out the trailer below and judge for yourself…

The film will open in select cities November 5th.

Scott Pilgrim vs the World was getting a lot of buzz long before it screened at Comic Con in July. Adapted from Brian Lee O’Malley’s hugely popular comic, the film is about Scott (Michael Cera), a Toronto native who’s dating a high school girl (Ellen Wong as Knives Chau) when he falls for a cool new girl (Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Ramona) and must defeat her “seven evil exes” in order to date her.

The cast of this geek masterpiece stopped by Denver on their press tour and I got a chance to sit down with Winstead, Brandon Routh, who is Ramona’s vegan rocker ex boyfriend, Todd Ingram, and Kieran Culkin, who plays Scott’s hilarious gay roommate Wallace Wells.

Though none of the three had read the comic prior to hearing about the film, they knew they were stepping into pretty big shoes as far as fans were concerned. “It has such a following. It’s grown with every book that has come out. The last one was number five on Amazon.” Winstead said.

Because the comic was such a hit, everyone involved with the film didn’t want to disappoint the devoted fans. Thankfully, says Winstead, director Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz) was just the man to tackle the challenge.

“We really trusted Edgar Wright,” she explained. “Everyone involved in the cast were big fans of his and all of his movies–Spaced, everything we had seen of his. For me, when I read the books, I knew he was the only person that could bring it to life in a way that is cool, unique and fun. So we all, from the second we stepped foot on the set, were just like, ‘ok, you tell us what to do. You guide us and we’ll do exactly like you want and we know that’s gonna end up the best it’s gonna be.’”

While it’s impossible to exactly recreate the comic, Culkin assured us that nothing major was left out. “Fans of the book didn’t seem to miss anything. They really like the adaptation, but, some will say they missed Kim Pines making out with Knives Chau,” he joked.

Outside of the world of comics, Scott Pilgrim vs the World also has tons of video game references spread throughout the movie. At times it’s almost as if you are watching a cut scene pulled directly from a video game. Because of that, I had to know if these guys were actually into video games.

Culkin was eager to talk about games and named Zelda: Ocarina of Time for Nintendo 64 as his favorite. “This game Virtual Pro 2, which is a Japanese wrestling game for the 64, I translated it into English so I can play it, but I didn’t need to. It was just for anybody else who wanted to play,” he added. He rounded off his top five with Mike Tyson’s Punch Out, Castlevania and Contra.

Routh chimed in to list his faves. “Dragon Warrior was one of the first RPGs. Shining Force, the Sega game, Shining Force 2, the sequel. Joe Montana Football, Sim City, and Warcraft.”

With video games as inspiration, the movie has a lot of really fun fight scenes. The cast talked about the training they went through to prepare.

“It was tough. We trained together for a long time, and we were really well prepared by the stunt guys who worked with us. They were fantastic teachers. Ellen had some prior experience with Taikwando, and I had prior experience with dance, so the two of us kind of combined our abilities. Ellen was so dedicated to Knives, that character, and so it was almost scary fighting with her sometimes, because she got so into character. It felt really real when I fought with her.” Culkin then asked her who would win a real fight between her and Ellen Wong. “We got that question a few times when we were interviewing together, and we always just said that would team up because, I’m like a giant, and she’s little and scrappy and fast.”

And, of course, with all that fighting comes a few injuries. “I pulled my shoulder out a bunch. Lots of tendonitis and stuff. Went to physical therapy for that. In that scene with Ellen, I got stabbed in the eye with one of her knives and was bleeding, and had to have a paramedic help. So yeah, there were lots of little things like that that happened, but it was kinda like battle scars, like we all felt really proud of our injuries,” Winstead said.

Though Wallace doesn’t do any fighting in the movie, Culkin said he trained along with everyone else. “It was more for fun, when everyone was getting together for weeks. We got together early in the morning for training, so I went along for that. Plus, I think also, when I got the part I hadn’t seen Edgar for months, so I showed up to set the first day with long green hair and thirty pounds of extra weight that he wasn’t expecting and I was like, ‘Are you sure? Are you sure you want me? Just try to picture my hair shorter, and I’ll lose thirty pounds, I swear.’ I got to go home for a while and lose that weight for him.”

Scott Pilgrim isn’t only filled with video game references, it’s also got the perfect feeling of an underground indie rock movie. Music is one of the main themes in the movie, with the main characters all competing in a giant battle of the bands, and a huge soundtrack filled with underground music.

Winstead may not be an expert on video games, but she did list her music favorites. “I listen to a lot of oldies and stuff. But, I like a lot of indie rock. Gosh, where do I start?” Suddenly, Culkin jumped in and told her to start by plugging the soundtrack and she replied, “That’s actually genuine, I love the soundtrack. Right now I really love The XX, a lot of Mike Patton stuff, Mr. Bungle, just kind of all over the map, but I love anything from the 60s and 50s, David Bowie, and I also like Buddy Holly, and girl groups. The Shangri Las are kinda my ultimate favorite.”

In the last question of the day, I asked Winstead who her favorite evil ex was in the film. She said she loved them all, but Routh quickly told us that wasn’t true at all, so she had to change her answer. “No, the fight with Roxy, Mae Whitman, will always be special to me because I actually got to fight with her, and we got train together for months and months. So, that was just an awesome experience, and she’s so badass, and wonderful. So, I have to say that one.” Routh also added that Roxy rocks.

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World opens everywhere on August 13^th, so make sure you go see it! The soundtrack is available now on cd and red vinyl, and it is awesome, so check it out. You can also check out the Scott Pilgrim 8-bit style video game that’s available for download on the PS3 now, and August 25^th for the Xbox Arcade version

When Trashwire began all those years ago, the contributors had pen names. Most were just plain silly, and some were not so safe for work. One of our earliest contributors was Dave DeHart, whose Trashwire nickname was definitely on the NSFW side. Today, Dave is back, using his real name, and bringing us his unique sports commentary in a new section caled “Sports Smart(ass) with Dave DeHart”. This week’s episode: Golden Tate vs the donut shop.

It feels so good to be back! My (one) fan might remember me as Dicky Cockerson, but I’ve been forced to change my name to David DeHart due to a long legal battle I lost with an internet pornstar. I wrote a Trashwire review for Spiderman 2 back in late 2004, and while my pseudo-bromance with Spiderman (or nearly everything Marvel) still exists, I decided to stop reviewing movies all together after I watched Ladder 49 and couldn’t possibly think of a way to review a movie that turrible (I know only pronounce the word ‘terrible’ like Charles Barkley). So without further Edu (it’s World Cup time baby!), I bring to you Sports Smart(ass) by Dave DeHart. Each week, I’ll be weighing in on some of the dumbest, oddest, and inexplainable happenings in sports. If you want sports recaps, go read a goddamn newspaper.

As TMZ.com first reported, Seattle Seahawks rookie WR Golden Tate was recently issued a trespass warning for breaking into local Seattle doughnut shop Top Pot Saturday at 3am. TMZ also has the recording from the nightshift baker who called in the incident. She claims that Tate was “being retarded” and stole several Maple Bars, which sound like they’d be worth taking a trespassing rap for. I’m guessing that “being retarded” meant he was drunk because I want to give the benefit of the doubt that an NFL rookie wouldn’t be smoking that super bomb Seattle Northern Lights (even though coach Pete Carroll could empathize if he was).

Now, I realize I’m not the first to chime in on Tate’s after hours escapades for some late night munchies, but I’ve gotta say, I don’t blame the guy. Do you even realize how hard it is to find delicious food at 3am on a Saturday when you’re drunker than Lindsey Lohan after a Ke$ha concert?! In Denver, you can’t even get Taco Bell at 3am, TACO BELL! Who even knew Taco Bell closed? It’s not like their employees have families to go home to.

If you are not familiar with Tate, he was a runningback/wideout hybrid at Notre Dame who made incredibly physical plays after the catch. On one particular play I saw, he got hit while jumping, did the ole’ fliparoo and almost landed on his feet to continue pounding his way to the endzone. Also, he has an incredibly awesome name too. It’s fun to say, Golden Tate, Golden Tate, Golden Tate, sometimes I accidentally say Golden Taint which brings up all sorts of rich imagery.

It’s no surprise though that a player who will do flips to get into the endzone would force his way into a donut shop for some delectable maple bars after a night of boozing. What else are you going to do, break into a Starbucks for some of their shitty zucchini walnut muffins? Fuck no. If you’re going to break into a store, it better be for something insanely awesome, like a Maple Bar from Top Pot, which Tate described as “irresistible.” If I was an NFL player coming home from a night of pounding my liver into submission where my stomach was an innocent bystander, I’d break into the store after taking a whiff of the Maple Bars from Top Pot (This entry IS brought to you by Top Pot Hand-Forged Doughnuts – http://www.toppotdoughnuts.com… no, not really.)

Luckily everyone, even the Seattle police, could laugh off the incident and instead of getting pegged with a breaking and entering charge, Tate walked away with a trespassing slap-on-the-wrist and belly full of finger-licking Maple Bars. I don’t like that he tried to pawn this one off on his friend and partner in crime, but hey, his friend isn’t worth millions of dollars, so pawn on my man. Let’s just all be happy that Golden didn’t stake his reputation on the line for some…wait for it…Karat cake.

Any filmmaker will tell you, it’s hard to please film critics. Sure, audiences might love your film, but nerdy film geeks like myself might hold it to a different standard. Impressing one critic is tough, but try impressing all three of the regular writers at Trashwire. Wil, Chris and I all had the chance to see Kick-Ass at different screenings and we all came back with the same opinion of the film: it kicks ass!

In this rare occurrence, Trashwire readers now have the chance to view a triple review of Kick-Ass.

What Chris had to say…

So what if somebody tried to be a superhero in real life? You know like the ones you see in all the comics. What would happen? Well one way to find out is by watching Kick-Ass, the new film from director Matthew Vaughn.

Dave Lizewski, played by Aaron Johnson, is a high school comic book nerd who goes unnoticed by the girl of his dreams. One day, after being fed up with getting his money stolen from the same common street thugs, Dave decides he’s going to become a real-life superhero. Dave creates the alter ego of Kick-Ass and tries to start helping his fellow citizens out. Shortly thereafter, Dave runs into another pair of superheroes in Hit Girl (Chloe Moretz) and Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage) and realizes he’s in way over his head.

If I had to choose one word to sum up how I felt about this movie, I’d go with awesome. Luckily for me I have more than one word.

First, I’ll start with the performances. I won’t spend much time here though because it won’t do them justice. Nicolas Cage. That’s all I need to say. His acting in Kick-Ass is brilliant. Simply hilarious. Go watch this movie and try and tell me differently.Next was the pure entertainment value this film provided. Easily the most fun I’ve had at the movies this year. From start to finish I was glued to the screen, couldn’t take my eyes off. Kick-Ass has everything the typical movie-goer wants in a film: action, brutal violence, sex, drugs, and comedy. The difference between this and the normal comic book movie is that this movie is actually good.

Never once have I watched a comic book movie and thought that I’d like to be a crime fighter, that is until I saw Kick-Ass. After screening Kick-Ass my first thought was, “yes, let’s go get us some bad guys!”

Sure, there’s going to be some people out there that aren’t going to like seeing an 11-year-old participate in Tarantino-esque violence. There are some people will probably have an issue with the language as well. To those people I say, chill out. The movie is meant to be fun. Enjoy.

What Wil had to say…

The opening film at the South By Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival kicked a certain amount of ass at the Paramount Theater in Downtown Austin, Texas. Visually mirroring the successful eight-part comic book, Kick-Ass is an entertaining film that brings an exciting new talent that can hold her own under a five-foot stature. Chole Moretz (Hit-Girl) engages the entire film with her presence as a child assassin trained by her dad. Although the protagonist-titled film tells the story of Aaron Johnson (Dave Lizewski, Kick-Ass), Moretz is the breakout star that pulls off adult language and moves that make this action-comedy enjoyable.

Kick-Ass is about Dave Lizewski who’s only power is “being invisible to girls”. After a viral video of “Kick-Ass” saving someone’s life from muggers hits the internet, the entire city becomes taken with the idea of a human superhero. The other two stories in the film involve The Macreadys, a family of weapons experts, and gangster Frank D’Amico (Mark Strong).

Nicolas Cage (Big Daddy) brings a certain charm to his role while alluding to Adam West, as discussed in a panel with the cast at SXSW. The chemistry between “Big Daddy” and “Hit-Girl” as father and daughter is the most interesting storyline to watch. Along with McLovin, or Christopher Mintz-Plasse (Chris D’Amico/Red Mist), Kick-Ass lets you know that this is based on a comic – visually through shots, computer animation, and inter titles in comic-sans – where each hero is mortal.

Just like a comic book series, you have to wait around for the next issue’s cliffhanger and punchline. Those climaxes occurred every time Moretz took the screen and carried the spirit of a true comic hero in this film.

My final take…

I could not agree more with Chris and Wil! The film was both hilarious and action-packed and the performances from the cast were absolutely flawless. Moretz is undoubtedly the stand-out star with a performance that channels Uma Thurman in Kill Bill and a face that makes you want to read her a bedtime story. Cage is another major highlight with his Adam West/William Shatner delivery as Big Daddy. As if all that wasn’t enough for me, the movie also features Clark Duke in a small role as one of Dave’s friends.

Three Trashwire writers can’t be wrong. Kick-Ass is a hit.

Review by Alexis Gentry, Chris Coffel and Wil Chinchilla

An exclusive preview of Predators, produced by Robert Rodriguez and directed by Nimród Antal, showed at the intimate Alamo Ritz on Friday March 12th to a packed house. The filmmakers, along with Fox Searchlight Pictures, introduced two trailers, a scene, and announced a possible July 7th theater date. Predators was originally a script written by Rodriguez as a writing assignment intended for Arnold Schwarzenegger in the late 90s. Rodriguez stated that because he was the only writer and he didn’t think the movie would ever actually be made, he went crazy creating new creatures in the other-world-setting. Since adding two other writers and presenting a new story within this franchise, Predators seems like a probable summer hit — especially with its cast.

Rodriguez stated that he wanted to have high caliber actors to present the material for viewers to take this story seriously. Laurence Fishburne, Adrien Brody, Topher Grace, Michelle Rodriguez, and Alice Braga star as the most dangerous killers playing the most dangerous hunting game. The exclusive scene shown at the event was the introduction of Fishburne’s character, which was simply amazing.

Rodriguez chose Antal to direct after watching Kontroll, and commented that he knew “this was a filmmaker.” Rodriguez also states that there is no CGI or extensive computer work in the film. The Predators are simply six to seven foot tall guys in suits, costumes, and make-up with a bit of wire-work. After the exclusive sneak peek, the trailer went online where the world can now see what people waited for all day at SXSW. With new Predator characters along with a cameo from an old friend early on in this film, Predators could be the latest action movie that will not be shown in god-forsaken 3-D.

There are two points I’d like to make in this article. I’ll get to the first one right away:  going to see your friend’s band is generally a bad idea. Friend’s bands are bad, especially in Nashville where everyone claims to be “with” or “in” the band. After slogging through their concert you’ll be forced to give everyone a big hug, buy them a beer, and proceed to tell the entire band how much they remind you of The Killers.

I’ve lived in Nashville off and on for ten years now and the above description has pretty much quickly become a weekly event for me. It hurts the soul after a while. In fact the list of friend’s bands I hadn’t seen was more or less down to one–I should be honest, it was down to one.

I’d been putting it off for nearly the entire time I’d been friends with these guys and I’m fairly sure my excuses were getting exponentially more extravagant and ridiculous. Eventually, I was trapped. I was sitting at a bar, with the guitarist and he asked me the right question after just the right amount of beer.

“Want to come to our show tomorrow night? Should be some pretty cute girls.”

Sure. They’re all good looking guys, so it makes sense they’d bring in some pretty good looking girls. How painful could it possibly be? I won a junior student company theater award in college, I can convince anyone I love anything.

The reason I’ve waited this long to mention the name of the band, or identify any of its members, is because I didn’t want this to look like a puff piece. It’s really not, and I certainly never really intended to write an article about these guys, but sometimes you get lucky and hit on a fantastic band at just the right time.

The band is Kissing Robots, and yes, they actually do sound like The Killers. They love playing together, their live shows are surprisingly tight, and the music is actually well written with creative melodies and some incredibly catchy hooks (including one that may, or may not, be the Inspector Gadget theme). They’ve actually got a future. And when I say that, considering the hundreds of friends and friends of friends bands I’ve been forced to endure the past ten years, I really, really mean it.

I won’t turn this into a review of the band or their album. One, that wouldn’t be fair to them because they’re still finding their sound and direction, and two, I’m god awful at writing music critiques. I have three basic opinions: It’s ok, like it, and love it. I marvel at the decision making power of Roger Ebert because I’m too indecisive to even go with thumbs up or thumbs down. It’s just important to note that I really loved these guys and, if you refer back to my rating chart above, that’s the highest rating I give.

I’ve never really actually discovered cool music before. Sure, I can surprise some of my friends with something new and hip, but I have several friends who are light years ahead of me, most notable is my best friend Megan. I swear there are drum circles in the fucking Congo who’s LP she already owns, and I have never, ever, been able to introduce her to someone worthwhile. But the other night I handed her a burned copy of the Kissing Robots album and told her to give it a listen. It was one of the more satisfying experiences of my life.

Friends bands are really, almost always, 99.9% of the time, an experience to never force on yourself. But sometimes it pays off and you might get to look really cool.

The second point I wanted to make, by the way, is this: never, ever, under any circumstances say “We should start a band.” Your friends will thank you.