A totally different level of film making and professionalism compared to the original, and not in a good way. The first had a cohesive sense of style, with good choices made in almost every aspect. This one is just a hodgepodge of almost universally bad taste. Somewhat entertaining, but highly overrated.

The box says one thing, the reality is something else. You are not getting the 400 lines of resolution in widescreen/letterbox 2.35:1 (in 16:9) with this dvd, but rather something closer to 200 lines, which is pretty awful. To make matters worse, the print's in dire need of remastering and digital touch ups. It's grainy and the colors & contrasts are not calibrated properly. I'd recommend THX standardized mastering. The optical matte boxes are visible in a number of shots and need to be digitally eliminated for future releases of this film. The quality of this dvd release is simply unacceptable for this caliber of film.

I can't believe I'd never gotten around to actually listening to a whole Prodigy album. I've been a techno head since about '92, but shied away from America's mainstream frenzy of '97 when the music elite was claiming electronica would spell the end of rock. Well it didn't happen and the Chemical Brothers never quite convinced me to buy any of their full lengths, though I have a number of their individual remixes. Prodigy was different, though. Between "Voodoo People" and "Firestarter" there was plenty of reason. A few weeks ago I caught an episode of Nova on the JSF project. The music clips they used were awesome. Ironically, that week I bought a ton of used CD's, including this one. The Nova music was "Poison"...how weird is that? The whole disk is loaded with gems and definitely a must have for anyone with even a passing interest in the genre. For someone like me it's embarrassing to only now have picked this up. And is that photo of Keith on the back hilarious, or what?!

FINALLY, I LOCATED THIS GROUP! I saw the Russian "I Lost My Mind" on M2 or Muchmusic like months and months ago. I only caught the last 30 seconds or so but immediately liked what I heard (and saw). Super fast energetic techno alternative, like Dubstar on speed. The video itself was very postmodern -- two school girls longing for each other -- and filmed gritty. It didn't hurt that the group consists of two of the most gorgeous girls on the planet, who happen to enjoy making out in their videos. No complaints from me. I also didn't have a problem with the language barrier, because 1) it was quite clear what they were singing about, 2) it sounded great as is, and 3) I'm already a big fan of Russian trance outfit PPK. And the Cocteau Twins were never comprehensible, either, and they're still cool. Well, I saw that former Penthouse Pet on one morning covering a music awards show here in Vegas and she mentioned TATU's kiss on stage. Well, that had to be them. Unfortunately I thought she was a bimbo and had gotten their name wrong. I was correct on one account, at least. Today I have no idea how I located this group. I'm not sure which page I stumbled upon first, but after months of searching I finally found the real TATU without even trying. You see, I'd written "Yatu" on that piece of scrap paper months back after spotting the video. I've also been without cable since that time, so I had no idea they'd released an album and started appearing frequently on American TV. They're on MAD TV tomorrow and I'm SOOO stoked. I do find it rather annoying that they have an English version of their Russian album. I can't imagine that's going to sound as good, squeezing a foreign word into the music's framework. It also seems like their management is marketing them to the Britney Spears crowd. I'm not sure the teenyboppers will know what to do with this style of music or this level of REAL female sexuality (in contrast to all the facades of US divas). Oh well, if it serves to encourage bisexuality in young women and more three-somes it can't be all that bad ;-)

More slow sustains and less variation than Mezzanine, but more deeply empathetic and emotive than that release. I am not a fan of Sinead O'Conner, but this album could change that. Robert (3D) Del Naja did a hellava job reining in her vocals, even without Nellee Hooper contributing as much anymore. I just wish they had Sara Jay (Dissolved Girl) return. She has such a great voice. I can understand why Liz Frazer was unavailable, though...she's getting a lot of offers, including on the Lord of the Rings soundtrack. The sound on this album is very warm, without the extremely intense low-end resolve of Mezzanine. It seems more balanced and neutral, though some might find it less sonically impactful. I find it more forgiving to the speakers and the ears while the soft gray character to the sound is more fitting for this style. Good job, Tim Young.

First Off, I think Title of a Record is a great album. Welcome to the Fold, The Best Things, Take a Picture, and Skinny are phenomenal. I also like the track Hey Man, Nice Shot from their first disc. Considering this album was inspired by 9/11 and Richard Patrick's road trip to "find America", I was expecting great things. While on first listen I had only the slightest misgivings, upon further listening the sore points have become more of a problem for me. Now I realize I've been hearing some aspects that aren't there and overlooking others.

There's an otherwise wonderful song that is about beating up meek people. When do "the meek" ever do anything that requires "turning the other cheek"? All they had to do was change "meek" to "creep(s)" and you'd have a song that's very relevant. Still a good track, but it requires some emotional gymnastics when that line comes around. Then there's another where it sounds like he's going to kill someone for disrespecting him, or something. Usually swearing doesn't bother me, but I'd be way uncomfortable playing this particular track too loud in the violent context it's used. I don't know...I guess the album will be popular with inmates. In fact, the previous song is called "My Long Walk To Jail". Hmm, felon rock?

Filter has also taken some other wrong turns. They're embracing "skater culture" in a way that seems too overt now. There's also too much adversely-processed vocals, growling, and screaming that sounds like Disturbed and all those other crummy psychotically-hard rock groups out there. Don't get me wrong; Patrick can sound very good screaming, but much of it on here sounds like they're trying to do it in a more marketable way. Maybe they've just been listening to commercial radio too much and it's not a conscious choice. Then, we've got the end of the album which seems intended for sitting around a ceremonial camp fire and tripping on mescaline. It's extremely interesting, but difficult to pay attention to for the length of the entire track.

All this said, however, there are some great tracks on here. Where Do We Go From Here is soaring and supremely relevant. Columind is fitting for the subject matter, though it sounds like a completely different band and the non-chorus vocals seem like sort of a waste of Patrick's voice. The song that's grown on me the most is The Only Way (Is the Wrong Way). For just a moment, he even sounds like Wayne Coyne from the Flaming Lips, which I think is pretty cool. I'll still listen to this album a lot, but it will be with me at times psyching myself into hearing something slightly different than is actually there.

P.S. Why oh why isn't Bob Ludwig doing HDCD masters anymore?

First off, those of you complaining about the stretched out video transfer need to educate yourselves on DVD. It's called anamorphic and allows more of the MPEG-2 video codec to be used for the picture itself in very widescreen formats. If you don't have a 16:9 television, you need to go into the video options menu of your DVD player (not the DVD's menu, mind you) and tell it you're using a 4:3 aspect ratio display. As for the color hues and sound, I don't own the DVD, so I can't say. Somehow I find it unlikely that a major studio's video mastering would be paltry, but who knows.

Now for the film itself: Forbidden Planet blew me away. Human beings in the future using flying saucers. Realistic jargon. Believable military behavior and procedures. Scenes that have been used in countless other sci-fi movies, including Total Recall and Star Wars. I even noticed that David Lynch copied some of the costumes and props for his version of Dune (uniforms, rifles, gun fire, onboard microphone handset, etc). Leslie Nielsen plays a very convincing captain of the military vessel. The crew is much more at ease with each other than you see in most science fiction where there's a command structure. Then, we have the stunning Anne Francis who's got a face to die for. The plot has excellent pacing and it never gives away too much too soon, even going so far as to never show us certain unnecessary elements at all. This is definitely a must see.

Moby is a great guy and deserves a lot of respect. But, this album is nowhere near the level of Move, Everything Is Wrong, or Play. There are some keepers on here, but the others are sort of boring. They sound like...Moby, yes, but simply like everything else he's ever done. He's definitely perfected a certain introspective feel, but it's done at the expense of creating a blindingly obvious formula: the ebbing and flowing ambience, the beats, the sampled vocal. Even the way a few of the tracks develop is extremely predictable: "Ok, cue the climax, settle it down, now only the piano." It's definitely listenable, but almost unnecessary to do so on many of them because you've already heard it, just with interchangeable samples and central melodies. If you're a recent Moby fan, I think you might be able to love all of 18 without being able to predict the transitions. So definitely give this a listen, just don't expect anything too diverse or revolutionary. For that I'm waiting for Kelli Ali's debut, the pre-release demo of which recently blew me away.

I'm starting to think you can have the very best of Vangelis by simply owning Themes and this CD. Given the shear volume of music he's created, I can't think of a higher compliment for this album.

Ms. Goldfrapp is the cool, without any of the usual pretension that's associated with groups like Portishead. She does much of this stuff herself (including the sleeve layout) and seems to take real pride in the art. Yes, I luv this music. Sumptuous, beautiful, with great comments on society and futurism (e.g. how the quest for utopia is the motive behind fascists and other ideologues), and lyrics like "Frankenstein would want your lovely head." It doesn't hurt that I'm part Swiss and she does the only sexy yodeling I've ever heard (yodeling usually makes me cringe). There's a version with bonus tracks that include the video mix of "Pilots" which I like a lot but unfortunately didn't get.