District

District 9 (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) [CD on Demand]
$9.99
I'm rating this down because what you get is a cheap nasty cd-r that scratch with a cheap booklet with no value or love. don't support cd-r on demand. the quality is so cheap it has no place in anyone's cd collection. the quality is so cheap it won't last long to playback in years to come.

amazon fail to offer lossless audio files on its market place and is happy to charge near cd prices for compressed poor quality mp3. it should support flac or apple lossless audio if selling cd's is such an issue. i won't be supporting cheap and nasty release like this. release cd's normally at a normal price and it will sell. sensible business logic.


clinton's score is fantastic. No argument here.

The District!
$19.98
I think there are two ways to describe why this animated film is so exceptional. The first is that it stretches the concept of a film to the limit while still, I think, being a film. When I watched it the first time, it seemed more like a collection of music videos put together as a training exercise. The second time I accepted it as a film and was so appreciative of it that I had to give it as a gift for Christmas. Reason number two is that the translation of hip hop forms to an Eastern European context is a really good way to expand discursive spaces. It would be equally interesting to watch Snoop Dog and Ice Cube perform Ibsen. I think this demonstrates that hip hop forms are not limited culturally or intellectually. (Some might argue that they always have to involve violent crime, however, which could be a good debate, and this film could be an example as corruption and violence are constant factors in the plot.) Really though, both the plot and the animatography, if that could be a word, are enough to cause a seizure if you try to play the whole game all at the same time. It takes a consistent effort to watch it calmly and remember you don't have to see every detail of every scene, every look on every face, every meaning of every comment in order to enjoy it. I think this is more like a music album for me, something I make friends with, then talk to a little bit once in a while, as opposed to a rental where I meet it once and that was it.

District 9 (Single-Disc Edition)
$28.96
My first impression about a quarter way into this movie, was "Oh, NO! Another aliens-as-racial-minority metaphor!" Yes, yes, I know all that, I just wanna be entertained- that theme's been done, then done again, then again ..ad nauseum. I was thinking the only way to save the plot line was to have the aliens relocated to Chicago as new Obama voters. Then I was pleasantly surprised.

So what does save this movie and transcends it beyond the predictable racism-is-bad, apartheid-is-bad "message", what saves it is that ultimately it doesn't take itself seriously, at which point the movie becomes immensely entertaining. The matter of fact story telling absorbs the viewer to accept the premise despite one's common sense. Looking like something I ate at last summer's clambake, the alien CGI is nearly flawless.

Best of all, the witty screenplay has such wry humor that it leaves nothing and no one unscathed. From the Afrikaner elites, to the S.A. Blacks ( who, themselves victims of cruel apartheid, display the same sentiments to these new arrivals), to the aliens themselves portrayed more like insects with a gusto for cat food and tires, advanced technology notwithstanding. Not to mention the proverbial military-industrial complex (always a good villain). Even political correctness is mocked as we follow that dolt of a protagonist's rise via nepotism to a position of authority. His adventures inspecting the District is a rich example of irony as mockumentary.

Of course the tired apartheid-alien message continues throughout the movie: segregated slums, Nazi inspired experiments, sham laws, forced mass evacuations, one from the "majority" transforming into one of the "minority". But as the movie progresses this theme becomes so cliche that it barely rises to consciousness and renders it meaningless. And that is a good thing. There's a world of serious cinema dealing with that subject more worthy to explore than a movie such as this. At best, maybe use it as a teaching tool on your middle-schooler about the lessons of apartheid.

So to all initially put off about this film, I say give it a view. It won't disappoint.

District 9 (Two-Disc Edition)
$36.95
My first impression about a quarter way into this movie, was "Oh, NO! Another aliens-as-racial-minority metaphor!" Yes, yes, I know all that, I just wanna be entertained- that theme's been done, then done again, then again ..ad nauseum. I was thinking the only way to save the plot line was to have the aliens relocated to Chicago as new Obama voters. Then I was pleasantly surprised.

So what does save this movie and transcends it beyond the predictable racism-is-bad, apartheid-is-bad "message", what saves it is that ultimately it doesn't take itself seriously, at which point the movie becomes immensely entertaining. The matter of fact story telling absorbs the viewer to accept the premise despite one's common sense. Looking like something I ate at last summer's clambake, the alien CGI is nearly flawless.

Best of all, the witty screenplay has such wry humor that it leaves nothing and no one unscathed. From the Afrikaner elites, to the S.A. Blacks ( who, themselves victims of cruel apartheid, display the same sentiments to these new arrivals), to the aliens themselves portrayed more like insects with a gusto for cat food and tires, advanced technology notwithstanding. Not to mention the proverbial military-industrial complex (always a good villain). Even political correctness is mocked as we follow that dolt of a protagonist's rise via nepotism to a position of authority. His adventures inspecting the District is a rich example of irony as mockumentary.

Of course the tired apartheid-alien message continues throughout the movie: segregated slums, Nazi inspired experiments, sham laws, forced mass evacuations, one from the "majority" transforming into one of the "minority". But as the movie progresses this theme becomes so cliche that it barely rises to consciousness and renders it meaningless. And that is a good thing. There's a world of serious cinema dealing with that subject more worthy to explore than a movie such as this. At best, maybe use it as a teaching tool on your middle-schooler about the lessons of apartheid.

So to all initially put off about this film, I say give it a view. It won't disappoint.