Artist: PT Walkley. Album: ...And the Adventures of Track Rabbit.
Artist: Amos Lee. Album: Supply and Demand.
Artist: Snow Patrol. Album: Eyes Open.
Your usual Mike Nichols affair—high-wattage cast, quality dialog, vaguely stagy mise en scène and slightly quaint politics cut with a reliable sardonicism. It's a pleasant, if slight, portrait of an interesting juncture in American diplomacy with obvious repercussions to this day. Minor quibble: did Julia Roberts acquire her steel magnolia schtick by studying Melanie Griffith in The Bonfire of the Vanities? I mean, it's not a performance that detracts from the movie by any means ... it's just a little ... regional-theater Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Know what I'm sayin'? I'll shut up now. Grade: B
Artist: Blonde Redhead. Album: 23.
Artist: Collective Soul. Album: Afterwords.
Like I, Robot before it, this 28 Days Later-Castaway hybrid is a Will Smith vehicle with a little bit more on its mind than the average blockbuster. That said, and as able, if unexceptional, as Francis Lawrence's direction is, there simply isn't that much story here. Much like its abandoned environments, the movie is expensively empty. It's a lavish vignette, a Twilight Zone episode pumped up just enough to justify a theatrical presentation. Nevertheless, a very decent outing for all concerned, although I did find the flashbacks to be somewhat awkwardly integrated. Nice Emma Thompson cameo, by the way. Grade: B
Artist: VHS Or BETA. Album: Bring On the Comets.
Ambitious, lavish, uneven, frustrating. The first act is pure tedious exposition; the second act more confusing mythology punctuated by awesome bear fights; and the third act thrilling but curiously abridged, suggesting sequels that will now surely never materialize. Grade: B
Artist: Jim Noir. Album: Tower of Love.
Artist: Gary Portnoy. Album: Destiny.