Music Review of the Week AND a Movie Review - Constantine no comments
This week I have a CD review from the archives of Music Spectrum and a movie review of the new Keanu Reeves flick, Constantine. I was once again invited to an advance screening of a new release in return for blogging my review of it, so Mrs Freak and I ventured back down to the big city for another free flick. More on that later, but I will let you know right now, that I’m very glad I didn’t have to spend money to see this one.
But first, to kick things off, here is the new Music Review of the Week, courtesy of Pastor Ben Squires and Music Spectrum…..
Berkeley, California. Birthday shopping spree in a used CD store courtesy of my parents who were visiting us at the time. While my parents and wife tried to entertain themselves, I scoured those stacks looking for the best way to add to my music collection.
There—something I was never even looking for—Kelly Joe Phelps’ Roll Away the Stone. I knew him as a great slide guitarist on Greg Brown’s Further In. But here was Phelps on his own.I ended up with more CDs in my hands than my parents really meant to buy. I had to deliberate about which ones to put back. I never even thought about sending Phelps back to the rack. I hadn’t heard his solo work. I had never heard him sing. However, with his guitar work, I knew there was the potential of an outstanding album in my hands.
(By the way, never assume that because it’s in the used stacks that it must suck. Someone returned it because they didn’t get the music, had poor taste, or were just moving and needed the cash).
When I got home, I encountered the usual debate—which CD to listen to first. Sometimes I’m patient and just scan a CD, getting a quick preview of what I now own. I don’t remember whether Phelps was first or last, but the opening line is one that stays with me, “Early one morning here/I look out across a worn out plain.†Then the guitar—dobro slide—incredible.
Phelps takes his deep voice and uses it like whole other layer on top of the guitar. The guitar and voice form a Gospel choir of sorts on this collection of traditional and original songs revolving around Christ and the Resurrection—an Easter album to be sure.
Jesus said that He was going ahead of us to prepare a room for each us in His Father’s mansion, and when I die, that’s where I want to be. Some days when I’m going through something difficult, that longing to be there is intense. Thanks to Kelly Joe Phelps that longing to be in heaven has a melody and some pretty intense guitar playing on the song, “Go There.â€
Even as his newer material has moved away from the Gospel songs, his blues are infused with both the deep need in our hearts and the hope of faith which we have despite our circumstances. Even in the most desperate stories on shine-eyed mister zen, the guitar work constantly works against the dirge, the funeral march, the darkness, the death. You can’t hear the picking or slide and not feel as if there is another day, there is hope beyond this life.
The lyric may be coming from the depths of sorrow like Psalm 13:1, “How long, LORD? Will you forget me forever?/How long will you hide your face from me?†But the guitar points ahead to the enduring faith in God’s love, as in the end of Psalm 13, “But I trust in your unfailing love;/my heart rejoices in your salvation./I will sing to the LORD,/for he has been good to me.â€
For more about the connection between the blues and the Gospel, take a look at a sermon I wrote a few years ago.
For more, you can check out the Official Webpage or a fansite which has a great collection of lyrics.
© 2004 Benjamin C. Squires
And now the review of Constantine. Apparently this is based upon some sort of warped and twisted comic book series. I didn’t know that ahead of time; I wish I had done a little research first.
By doing a bit of searching afterwards, I found out that the movie is based on the DC/Vertigo “Hellblazer” series of graphic novels by Jamie Delano and Garth Ennis. And just one of the sick and twisted factoids I learned about the Hellblazer series had Constantine sleep with the Virgin Mary to taint her with demon blood. This is the character that is suppossed to be the hero of the movie?!?
John Constantine has been to hell and back.
Born with a gift he didn’t want, the ability to clearly recognize the half-breed angels and demons that walk the earth in human skin, Constantine (KEANU REEVES) was driven to take his own life to escape the tormenting clarity of his vision. But he failed. Resuscitated against his will, he found himself cast back into the land of the living. Now, marked as an attempted suicide with a temporary lease on life, he patrols the earthly border between heaven and hell, hoping in vain to earn his way to salvation by sending the devil’s foot soldiers back to the depths.
But Constantine is no saint. Disillusioned by the world around him and at odds with the one beyond, he’s a hard-drinking, hard-living bitter hero who scorns the very idea of heroism. Constantine will fight to save your soul but he doesn’t want your admiration or your thanks – and certainly not your sympathy.
All he wants is a reprieve.
When a desperate but skeptical police detective (RACHEL WEISZ as Angela Dodson) enlists his help in solving the mysterious death of her beloved twin sister (also played by Weisz), their investigation takes them through the world of demons and angels that exists just beneath the landscape of contemporary Los Angeles. Caught in a catastrophic series of otherworldly events, the two become inextricably involved and seek to find their own peace at whatever cost.
Reeves appears to be sleep walking thru this one, still trying to earn points from his Matrix performances. Constantine apparently wants to be both good and bad, and Reeves is so listless at times that no one really cares one way or the other. Constantine triumphs and yet there is the feeling of loss, dejection, and boredom.
Apparently this was the director Francis Lawrence’s first film; he has previously directed music videos, and if this film is any indication, he should probably begin looking for a new line of work. The story telling has to be among the worst I have ever had the misfortune of seeing; the plot development is horrendous, several scenes are tossed in for no apparent reason, other areas of the so-called plot beg to be developed and are left ignored.
It was almost sad to witness more than a few unintentional comic scenes resulting from bad dialogue. The laughter in the theater had an almost embarrased quality to it, as though we all knew that what we were laughing at really wasn’t supposed to be funny, but somehow it just came out that way.
The ’smashing special effects’ were just that - lot’s of smashing glass shards flying in super slow motion. Although, I will give credit for a rather gruesome and riviting portrayal of hell, with endless souls upon souls, in eternal torment.
This was supposed (I think) to be a new twist on the good vs. evil tale, but the lines are so blurred that one can’t really tell what is good and what is bad. The angel Gabriel crosses over to side with the son of Lucifer, a witch doctor provides a neutral night club for agents from both sides, Lucifer and God gamble for the souls of mankind, Lucifer is a healer and granter of life.
There is no doubt that there is a lot of theology in this movie; none of it has anything to do with Christian theology, but it is a telling look at how a post-Christian culture views theology - a liberal sampling and mixture of withcraft, the occult, paganism, angeleolgy, fantasy and neo-Christianity.
It’s sort of a shame this movie was so poorly made, even with the very disturbing premise upon which it was based, there could have been something interesting to talk about here. As it is, the extreme lackluster performance and story make this a film to avoid at all costs.