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The World Of Hayao Miyazaki - A Tribute Screening To Legendary Film Creator, Hayao MiyazakiPosted on 28 Feb 2014 |
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The 86th ACADEMY AWARDS WinnersPosted on 03 Mar 2014 |
Genre: Sports/Drama
Director: Ivan Reitman
Cast: Kevin Costner, Jennifer Garner, Sam Elliott, Tom Welling, Frank Langella, Denis Leary, P. Diddy, Josh Pence, Terry Crews, Rosanna Arquette, Ellen Burstyn, Chadwick Boseman, Chi McBride, W. Earl Brown, Griffin Newman, Kevin Dunn, Patrick St. Esprit
RunTime: 1 hr 50 mins
Rating: NC-16 (Some Coarse Language)
Released By: Cathay-Keris Films
Official Website: https://www.facebook.com/DraftDayMovie
Opening Day: 5 June 2014
Synopsis: On the day of the NFL Draft, general manager Sonny Weaver (Kevin Costner) has the opportunity to save football in Cleveland when he trades for the number one pick. He must quickly decide what he's willing to sacrifice in pursuit of perfection as the lines between his personal and professional life become blurred on a life-changing day for a few hundred young men with dreams of playing in the NFL.
Movie Review:
This reviewer isn’t a sports fan (that may just be a lame excuse for him not to stay physically active by playing sports), and he is of the view that all sports movies have the same message to convey – sports brings people together, encourages bonding between individuals and is a fine example of the determined human spirit. Think of movies like 2005’s Coach Carter (basketball), 2009’s The Blind Side (American football) and 2012’s Trouble With The Curve (baseball), did you not walk out of the theatre with a warm fuzzy feeling? Let’s not even talk about our own One Leg Kicking (2001) and Kallang Roar: The Movie (2008).
What does this Ivan Reitman directed sports movie offer that we haven’t seen elsewhere before?
The story’s protagonist is Kevin Costner’s Sonny Weaver Jr, general manager of American football club Cleveland Browns. We follow him over the day in the hours that can decide his team's fate for the season. Known as Draft Day, this is the day for him to rebuild his team when he trades for the number one pick.
Sounds like an interesting premise? Only if you are familiar with American football, and have a fair amount of knowledge of how the sport is played. The National Football League (NFL) has this interesting tradition where the fates of the players are played out in a game show like manner. Each team gets to choose (or draft – get it?) unsigned or trade players in public for all to see. This makes for a battle of wits, conspiracies and high tension, you say? Unfortunately, this was lost on this writer (told you he isn’t the biggest sports fan).
The characters speak in football jargon, confuse each other with numbers (statistics, players’ salaries) in this off the field game, and try to throw their opponents’ off balance by shaking their confidence. Reitman (Up In The Air, No Strings Attached) assumes his viewers are fully aware of how the game is played, and concentrates on the psychological warfare between the team managers. To fill up the 110 minute runtime, he throws in the protagonist’s struggle with his unsupportive mother, a romance with his co worker and conflict with the team coach.
Costner, who impressed us with his subdued yet powerful performances in the recent Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit and Man of Steel (unfortunately, the mistake that was 1995’s Waterworld won’t be forgotten anytime soon, Mr Costner), delivers another commendable performance as a man who is determined to get his point across. Let’s just say with the many things the character has to deal with in life, he has already done a decent job on the titular Draft Day. Elsewhere, there’s Ellen Burstyn (Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood, The Fountain) as the overbearing mother, Jennifer Garner (The Invention of Lying, Dallas Buyers Club) as the romantic interest whom we think has zero chemistry with her leading man, Denis Leary (Ice Age, The Amazing Spider Man) as an arrogant coach and the always reliable Frank Langella (Frost/ Nixon, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps) as a rival team manager.
The ensemble cast delivers noteworthy performances, but it’d take a American football fan (or someone sportier than this reviewer, at least) to be engaged by the otherwise decent movie.
Movie Rating:
(Viewers not familiar with American football may be left out in the cold, despite the cast’s competent performances)
Review by John Li
Genre: Action/Thriller
Director: Camille Delamarre
Cast: Paul Walker, David Belle, RZA, Catalina Denis
RunTime: 1 hr 30 mins
Rating: PG13 (Some Violence and Brief Coarse Language)
Released By: Cathay-Keris Films
Official Website:
Opening Day: 24 April 2014
Synopsis: In a dystopian Detroit, abandoned brick mansions left from better times now house only the most dangerous criminals. Unable to control the crime, the police constructed a colossal containment wall around this area to protect the rest of the city. For undercover cop Damien Collier (Paul Walker) every day is a battle against corruption. For Lino (David Belle), every day is a fight to live an honest life. Their paths never should have crossed, but when drug kingpin, Tremaine (RZA) kidnaps Lino’s girlfriend, Damien reluctantly accepts the help of the fearless ex-convict, and together they must stop a sinister plot to devastate the entire city. With stylized action featuring thrilling Parkour stunts (David Belle is the co-founder of this physical training discipline), Brick Mansions puts an entertaining twist on the action genre.
Movie Review:
‘Brick Mansions’ will forever be remembered as Paul Walker’s final completed film, the star best known for being one of the leads in the ‘Fast and Furious’ franchise still mourned after losing his life in a single car accident late last year. But were it not for Walker’s death, it would most certainly be his French co-star David Belle’s show instead, for ‘Mansions’ is without a doubt his calling card to Hollywood by giving them a taste of a certain brand of action called parkour.
For the uninitiated, parkour refers to a style of movement which utilises the body’s momentum and maximises objects in the surroundings to enable a person to get around obstacles in the most efficient way possible. Belle happens to be one of the eight founders of the discipline, which was given prominence in Luc Besson’s ‘District 13’ and its sequel ‘District 13: Ultimatum’ that Belle himself also starred in. Yes, ‘Mansions’ is Besson’s English-language remake of his earlier ‘District 13’, with Belle returning to star as the unlikely partner of an undercover cop who wages war against a gang lord.
The names of the characters may have been tweaked a little - Belle’s character, for instance, is now called Lino instead of the original’s Leïto - but the story remains largely the same. Instead of a younger sister, it is Lino’s ex-girlfriend Lola (Catalina Denis) who has been held hostage by the gang lord Tremaine Alexander (RZA) and his men, the former of whom is also the de facto leader of the titular neighbourhood. It is 2018, and within a post-industrial Detroit lies a criminal and junki-littered ghetto that is walled off from the rest of the city and guarded by the military.
A thrilling opening sequence which sets up the personal feud between Lino and Tremaine as the former evades the latter’s henchmen led by K2 (Gouchy Boy) is as awesome an introduction as one can ask for to the art of parkour, which involves plenty of running, climbing, swinging, vaulting, jumping, rolling, quadrupedal movement and the like. Culminating in the detonation of a grenade as Belle leaps across the roof of one building to another, it’s not hard to understand why the setup for Walker’s narcotics agent Damian Collier - that sees him take down the drug kingpin George the Greek (Carlo Rota) - pales in comparison.
The raison d'être for their unlikely partnership is a neutron bomb which K2 has stolen from the city’s authorities that is armed and aimed at downtown Detroit. Logic isn’t the movie’s strong suite of course, and you’d just have to accept that the city’s hopes fall on a lone though decorated cop and an ex-convict. Once you get past that however, you’ll start to appreciate the movie’s small pleasures.
For one, Walker and Belle make a pretty cool tag-team, especially in scenes where they have to rely on each other to get out of a tight situation. The cardboard villains are also suitably over-the-top - in addition to the not so competent K2, Robert Maillet’s appropriately named Yeti is a cartoonish but entertaining foil for our two protagonists. Denis is great eye candy for the male members of the audience, and looks absolutely stunning in a fetish-stimulating kind of way with her uniform getup. But of course, the attraction here remains the gravity-defying stunts, which Belle - and to a far less but no less significant extent, Walker - pulls off impressively. There isn’t much that first-time feature director Camille Delamarre (who probably got the job by cutting his teeth as editor on notable Besson productions such as Taken 2, Colombiana and Transporter 3) adds to the picture, but he does know a thing or two for keeping the momentum of the film going by dialing up the action and keeping the exposition to a necessary minimum.
And really, to expect more of ‘Brick Mansions’ would certainly be unfair, for it aspires to be nothing more than an adrenaline-pumping diversion meant to introduce the grace and fluidity of the sport of parkour to a wider audience. That we can say the movie accomplishes beautifully, as well as in making a star out of David Belle. As for Walker, he does get behind the wheel for a couple of car chases, though some viewers will undoubtedly find that difficult to watch given the manner of his death. Still, it’s as befitting a movie as any to the memory of Walker, but perhaps even more so as solid an introduction as any for his co-star Belle, and in its setting as well as its stunts as distinctive as one can ask for in an urban-based action movie.
Movie Rating:
(An adrenaline-pumping parkour-based action thriller that is as sweet tribute to the memory of Paul Walker as it is a wowing introduction for French star David Belle)
Review by Gabriel Chong
Genre: Horror/Thriller
Director: John Pogue
Cast: Jared Harris, Sam Claflin, Erin Richards, Rory Fleck-Byrne, Olivia Cooke
RunTime: 1 hr 37 mins
Rating: NC-16 (Horror and Some Nudity)
Released By: Cathay-Keris Films
Official Website: http://thequietonesmovie.com
Opening Day: 8 May 2014
Synopsis: A university student (Sam Claflin of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire) and some classmates are recruited to carry out a private experiment -- to create a poltergeist. Their subject: an alluring, but dangerously disturbed young woman (Olivia Cooke of Bates Motel). Their quest: to explore the dark energy that her damaged psyche might manifest. As the experiment unravels along with their sanity, the rogue PHD students are soon confronted with a terrifying reality: they have triggered an unspeakable force with a power beyond all explanation.
Movie Review:
Following their modest success with the Daniel Radcliffe-starrer ‘The Woman in Black’, the revival of the legendary British horror studio Hammer continues with this 70s-set supernatural thriller ‘The Quiet Ones’, which sees a Oxford professor of abnormal psychology try to push the limits of science in order to chase the demons away from inside a mentally disturbed young girl. Ok, the said professor will probably take umbrage at how we’ve described his technique - given his deep-seated belief that supernatural manifestations are but a physical expression of mental energy – but hey so does the movie try to have it both ways.
Veteran screenwriter John Pogue’s sophomore directorial outing places at its heart the struggle between science and the supernatural within a certain Professor Joseph Coupland’s (Jared Harris) supposedly groundbreaking experiment. Awarded custody of the teenager named Jane Harper (Olivia Cooke), he has her under lock and key in a room in a London flat. When the university establishment gets cold feet over his pet project, Coupland relocates the girl and his assistants - Krissi (Erin Richards) and Harry (Rory Fleck-Byrne) – to a sprawling country estate to continue his work.
Tagging along is their cameraman Brian (Sam Claflin), from whose p.o.v. we observe the going-ons at least half of the time. The effect is very much akin to a found footage movie, complete with jittery camera movements that may induce some degree of motion sickness; but otherwise the found-footage verite largely works to the film’s advantage, creating a feeling of dread as we follow our characters down darkened hallways and into half-lit rooms. Brian is also the most religious among the lot, and the one to confirm that there may be some hint of demonic possession involved in Jane’s unnatural behaviour.
Largely though, Harris’ casting ensures that Professor Coupland remains a compelling figure even with his academic hocus-pocus, and it is to Harris’ credit that his character turns even more deliciously sinister throughout the film. It is refreshing to see that Pogue, who co-wrote the screenplay with Craig Rosenberg, Oren Moverman and Tom de Ville, doesn’t simply turn the characters into scared cardboard types when Jane unleashes her evil; rather, there is an arch brio to Coupland that invigorates the proceedings, though it does stop short at casting him as the villain despite some truly ethically questionable methods.
Nonetheless, the narrative does sag a little in the middle even as Jane’s psychosis escalates, and a third-act introduction of a cult group whose symbol of devil worship is burnt into Jane’s skin fizzles out before it literally “catches fire”. Pogue tries hard to compensate with his bag of horror tropes – strobe lights, locked rooms and a creepy looking doll – but the one gimmick he relies on too repeatedly is to raise the sound effects to ear-shattering levels, coupled with shock cuts that ultimately wear out their welcome as soon as the frame disappears.
What he does succeed in doing is to evoke a retro feel for the horrors from of old, paying close attention to recreating a 70s setting complete with mutton-chop sideburns and choice tunes from T. Rex and Slade. Still, that’s unlikely to be enough to convince modern-day audiences that it deserves their attention; were it released back in the era, we’d be sure it’ll be a pretty well-made piece of horror, but we suspect that its mere recycling of past stylistic clichés is unlikely to do it any favours. Indeed, when it doesn’t even bother to explain its title except in an unexplained throwaway line, that’s a sure sign ‘The Quiet Ones’ isn’t quite worth its weight in jump scares and loud noises.
Movie Rating:
(A retro-styled horror that relies too conveniently on shock cuts and jump scares to scare its audience)
Review by Gabriel Chong
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NEW SHORT "FROZEN FEVER" TO OPEN IN THEATERS IN FRONT OF "CINDERELLA" ON MARCH 12, 2015Posted on 04 Dec 2014 |
Mark Waters latest film is the newest young adult (read: teenager) adaptation about a group of half vampire half human heroines who, well, have to protect their kind against a greater evil. Is the music on the movie’s soundtrack “vampire-ish” enough to set it apart from the other soundtracks of similar genre (read: Twilight, The Mortal Instruments) featuring pop songs teens would dump into their playlists?
The 44 minute album does try to compile a list of thematic songs to align itself with the movie’s plot. Just look at track titles like “In Your Grave”, “Sinful Nature” and “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” – how’s that for feeling all gothic?
Credit also goes to the soundtrack producers for infusing dark and edgy elements into the music. American singer Sky Ferreira’s “Red Lips” is hypnotically jittery, while Max Frost’s “Nice and Slow” takes things at a more relaxed pace, giving you some time to breathe.
Elsewhere, English electronic music duo Goldfrapp seduces with the trippy “Thea”, the Bradford born Natalia Kills energises things up a little with “Boys Don’t Cry”, while Australian singer Iggy Azalea performs the dance party worthy “Bounce”. There’s something for everybody in this teenage friendly soundtrack.
You also get the soulful Ella Eyre belting out the R & B tune “Think About It”, British recording artist crooning the hip hop track “Rats” and electronic dream pop group Au Revoir Simone buzzing some feel good vibes with “Crazy”.
The album’s highlight is “Spiritual”, a song written by Katy Perry for her fourth studio album “Prism”. Perry sings: “Lay me down at your altar, baby/ I’m a slave to this love/ Your electric lips have got me speaking in tongues/ I have prayed for a power like you/ To see deep down in my soul/ Oh, you make me bloom like a flower, a desert rose.” Those are some very powerful imageries indeed, Ms Perry.
ALBUM RATING:
Recommended Track: (10) Spiritual - Katy Perry
Review by John Li
Genre: Comedy
Director: Chiu Keng Guan
Cast: Ben Andrew Pfeiffer, Lee Sai Peng, Joanne Yew Hong Im
RunTime: 1 hr 42 mins
Rating: PG
Released By: MM2 Entertainment & Cathay-Keris Films
Official Website:
Opening Day: 20 March 2014
Synopsis: Uncle Chuan is an old-fashioned and conservative retiree who leads a quiet life in Cameron Highlands. He wants to reunite with his only daughter Ah Bee who is due to return from her studies overseas. But to his horror, Ah Bee brings back an angmo boyfriend, Benji, and they plan to get married. Uncle Chuan strongly opposes to the marriage but his daughter refuses to budge. In the end, Uncle Chuan reluctantly agrees to the marriage, on condition that the wedding ceremony is done in the traditional Chinese way. According to Chinese customs, son-in-law Benji has to deliver the wedding invitation cards together with his future father-in-law. Uncle Chuan wants to invite eleven of his primary school classmates to his daughter’s wedding in person--a promise that he has made to them since young. To complicate matters, these classmates now live all over the Malaysian Peninsula, some in remote places. Benji agrees to the challenging task, but insists that they travel on his somewhat beat-up motorcycle. There begins the journey of a lifetime for a cranky old man and his equally cranky son-in-law.
Movie Review:
If there is one thing that Singapore’s ‘Ilo Ilo’ and Malaysia’s ‘The Journey’ have in common, it is that the best stories are those told from the heart and about the family. You would probably have heard about our little film by Anthony Chen that has gone on to win the Best Film at the Golden Horse Awards, but you may also want to take note of Malaysian director Chiu Keng Guan. His third Chinese New Year film after 2010’s ‘Woohoo!’ and 2011’s ‘Great Day’, ‘The Journey’ has won over the hearts of countless of our brothers and sisters across the Causeway, which has since played for over two months to become the highest-grossing local film ever.
In many aspects, life in Singapore and life in Malaysia ain’t that different. Both societies have local issues of cultural differences, generational gaps, and of course familial expectations that confront each and every individual. So you’ll understand the reservations that the strict conservative curmudgeon Uncle Chuan (Lee Sai Peng) has when his daughter, whom he had forced to live with his aunt in England following the death of her mother, returns home with a Caucasian fiancé Benji (Australian actor Ben Andrew Pfeiffer)hoping to receive his blessings for their impending nuptials.
The reservations of course aren’t just Uncle Chuan; his daughter Ah Bee (Joanna Yew) still holds a grudge against her father for sending her away, their relationship broken because of distance, lack of communication and East-West cultural differences after her stay in England. Ah Bee’s resentment of her father only grows deeper at the start when Uncle Chuan is opposed to the marriage due to what he perceives is Ben’s childish behaviour. But upon a close friend is suddenly struck with stroke, he decides to give the ‘ang-moh’ a chance.
Accepting their marriage reluctantly, he has but one condition, that Benji go on a road trip with him to personally deliver their wedding invitation to 11 of his former primary classmates scattered across Peninsular Malaysia. Turns out that the twelve of them had at some point in their childhood each picked an animal in the Chinese zodiac, and the trip also serves as a means for Uncle Chuan to reconnect with the people whom he had lost touch with over the years, with the realisation that life can indeed be both short and unpredictable.
Like ‘Ilo Ilo’, ‘The Journey’ isn’t composed of big moments; rather, screenwriter Ryon Lee looks for gentle unforced humour in real-life situations, mirroring the chuckles and smiles that we have in daily life. Benji’s ‘boo-boos’ along the journey struggling with language and cultural barriers makes for some nicely amusing moments, but underneath the humour, the film goes much deeper to explore the tension between modernism and tradition, especially as the relevance of Chinese customs are constantly being re-evaluated in the face of an increasingly metropolitan society. It’s the same in Singapore as with Malaysia, so even though this isn’t set in our hinterland, you’ll instantly relate to what is being portrayed.
Not just that, Chiu excels in moments of poignancy, and it isn’t an overstatement to say that ‘The Journey’ is one of the most heartwarming movies that we have seen of late. The bonding between father and son-in-law builds to something quite touching towards the end, but more than that, the reconciliation between father and daughter for the years of hurt and misgivings that have been previously ignored is something which you’ll find difficult to hold back your tears from.
For first-time feature film actors, all three of the lead cast have performed beautifully. In particular, Lee Sai Peng’s grumpy Uncle Chuan is an absolute natural, and as the story evolves, you’ll find yourself warming up to his character. Pfeiffer brings a whole lot of charm into the picture, and it isn’t surprising that girls will take very easily to his goofy persona. Lee and Pfeiffer also make a great pair, and you’ll find yourself rooting for the two to embrace each other by the end of the film.
There is indeed a reason why a simple unassuming film like this has gone on to become the most popular local film in Malaysia, and that is evidently clear once you have seen it. In exploring themes of culture, tradition, modernity, family, and reconciliation, ‘The Journey’ proves in its own humble and unpretentious manner that life and love is a journey worth the living and worth the taking. It won’t leave you astounded, but as a feel-good movie, it is a truly a winner.
Movie Rating:
(A genuine heartfelt winner of a feel-good movie, this Journey is one you wanna take again and again)
Review by Gabriel Chong
Genre: Comedy
Director: Boris Boo
Cast: Christopher Lee, Mark Lee, Ann Kok, Kym Ng, Guo Liang, Richard Low, Irene Ang, Jimmy Taenaka, Hayley Woo, Liu Ling Ling, Aaron Tan, Zheng Yin Yin, Mindee Ong
RunTime: 1 hr 50 mins
Rating: PG13 (Some Sexual References & Coarse Language)
Released By: GV & Clover Films
Official Website:
Opening Day: 8 May 2014
Synopsis: FILIAL PARTY revolves around a reality TV game show titled “FILIAL PARTY” which takes the nation by storm with its $1-million prize money pledged for the winner who portrays exceptional filial piety on TV. Mark Lee plays the host/producer of the TV game show; Christopher Lee, Ann Kok and Hayley Woo are the three finalists vying for the coveted cash prize.
Movie Review:
Filial Party is released just in time for this Mothers’ Day weekend! The movie title is an obvious wordplay of 'filial piety', so it's also no surprise that the movie is on the topic of filial piety. The backdrop of the movie is a reality television program, where the participants vie for the prize money of 1 million dollars with their measure of filial piety by performing certain tasks and missions. As you may have already expected, how can one really measure filial piety?
The main story focuses on three participants and their parent(s) - namely a lawyer played by Ann Kok, a security officer played by Christopher Lee and a spoilt brat played by Hayley Woo. Expectedly, each of them has their own set of agenda, apart from showing filial piety, which they wish to accomplish through the program; for fame, money and popularity. The premise of this movie was already one that is slightly more solemn and not fun to begin with. Moreover, maintaining and balancing these three storylines is not that all easy. In the end, the plot lacked focus and not one character's story was done to perfection.
On its comedic and entertainment value, the movie managed to only pull off an average. The poking fun at the media industry, the illustration of the STOMP culture in Singapore and pervasive use of social media is but an exaggeration. Cameo appearance of the director (Boris Boo) himself as a stunt truck driver carrying Eric Tsang's accent merely tickled. Although the movie is probably intended to be lighthearted and entertaining, the mood of the movie often fluctuated, hence giving rather mixed meanings and confuses the viewers.
Also, the characterization and character development are not that strong. You do see that spark of hope in the lineup of local celebrities in the cast. But unfortunately, there was no remarkable or noteworthy performance from anyone of them. And probably to be fair, there was not much room for development. Certain tensions were built up to test the characters’ personalities but they were all to brief to bring about a depth in the story. The progress of the movie felt sluggish and even the plot twist was not very impactful.
Overall, the mish-mash and the ambitious goal of incorporating all the trendy elements into one movie is possibly not the best idea. Though the movie ended on a positive note, it was rather moral loaded and too prescriptive. Well but at the very least, Filial Party was a good enough and sincere local production.
Movie Rating:
(A uniquely Singapore production with a sincere message at heart)
Review by Tho Shu Ling
First of all, it’s kind of strange to find Danny Elfman involved in a DreamWorks animation project, an area where it’s dominated by the likes of Hans Zimmer, Henry Jackman and John Powell. Then again why bother, it’s always nice to have a new Elfman score to listen to.
DreamWorks’ latest release is an update of a 1960’s Bullwinkle’s animated cartoon featuring the adventure of a clever talking dog and his adopted son, Sherman. The premise in a nutshell involves plenty of time travel that takes viewers back to ancient Rome, Italy and Egypt meeting some of the greatest people ever exist liked Leonardo Da Vinci, King Tut, George Washington just to name a few. It’s actually the perfect canvas for Elfman to work his magic. Remember Elfman is famous for breathing life to lots of fantasy epics, Edward Scissorhands, Bettlejuice and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
The opening track “Mr Peabody’s Prologue” is a light snazzy theme, effectively setting up the mood of the movie. Of course variations of it is littered throughout the 50 minutes score. “Reign of Terror!” reminds one of his usual trademark gothic themes, filled with adventure, mystery and energy. Infused with the use of a choir, the grand sounding of “The Flying Machine” marks a high point. “Off to Egypt” and “Trojan Horse” as the names suggest invokes some very fun frantic cues. “The Amazing Mr Peabody” is a cute track that needs to be seen in theaters first to be fully appreciated.
Two songs are also included in the OST, the classic John Lennon’s “Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)” which is used to perfection in a moving flashback sequence and Grizfolk’s “Way Back When” in the ending credits.
While not an outstanding or should I say distinctive Elfman’s score, the music arrangement on the whole is solid and interesting. Elfman remains as always a wonderful composer to tune to.
ALBUM RATING:
Recommended Track: (14) The Flying Machine
Review by Linus Tee
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