Live Muisc; Bent x 2 +1 = Great musical experience

Its not all t hat often that members of a musical family this talented appear in the same venue at once (the title equation refers to Rupert Bent Sr and Jr and Jana Bent (daughter of one, brother to the other), who played to an appreciative audience at Redbones last Wednesday. The "official" occasion was to mark the start of a new Wednesday residency by Bent Sr at Redbones (once a month; he also has regular gigs at Morgan's Harbour and at the Pegasus) and unofficially to join Jr in celebrating 15 years of marriage to wife Michelle. With such a pleasant confluence of occasions, spirits were bound to be high and no one left disappointed

Fittingly, Bent Sr started off the evening, in Marley mode with "Redemption Song" thereafter proceeding amiably through covers spanning the gamut of rock and pop. He hit an early high on Bobby Caldwell's "What You Won't Do (You Do For Love)" and I say this because on that piece, his playing not seemed more robust, but the balance between his guitar and the accompanying track seemd more harmonious than in the earlier selections, when it appeared that he was almost drowned out at times. Bent Sr. would scale even greater heights with a one-two punch of Santana - "Black Magic Woman" and "Oye Como Va" that kept him on his feet and had the audience tapping theirs.

After a brief intermission, it was family time. Despite having two full-length albums to her credit, songs placed in international TV shows ('The Hills") and a bonafide hit in "You So Fine", Jana Bent has spent more of her time and energy in recent years in the corporate (or statutory) world, working with gaming regulator the Betting gaming and Lotteries Commission. Musically, she has put her abilities and experience ot a very notable "side project" - the Shaggy Parrot series of enviro-themed children's books, which are proving very popular. So she has been busy. But when Dad asks, one can hardly say no, so there she was, belting out "Natural Woman" with much gusto, this accompanied by Bent Jr, who wento on to his own dynamic guitar exposition (was it Sting's "Fragile"?) before playing in tandem with his father.

Famalail duties of my own called me away at that point, but not after having had a very welcome refresher on the musical gifts of the family Bent.

http://localjoe.myorganogold.com/

http://www.amazon.com/Turbo-Donkeycart-Michael-D-Edwards/dp/1495999475/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1429183880&sr=8-1&keywords=Turbo+Donkeycart

Like it [Almost] never Happened: Sunshine Cleaning

In the opening sequence of this bleak yet defiant little movie, a man freshens his breath before entering a gun shop, ostensibly to buy a shotgun. In the very next second, his brains and blood are spattered on the ceiling  (and in other locations) of the shop, and is being analysed by the requisite Police team.

So what? What does that have to do with the title? As it happens, the officer leading the investigation Mac (Steve Zahn) is the married lover of  Rose (Amy Adams), the "heroine" who is struggling with raising a young son (fathered by said Mac), financial pressure, the presence and antics of her father (Alan Arkin, in another winning performance) as well as those of her sister Norah, well played by Emily Blunt (The Adjustment Bureau).

When Mac  - prompted by the aformentioned suicide and the attedant clean-up expense - suggests that a potential income stream exists, Rose jumps right on it, even without any proper knowledge of what crime scene clean-up and biohazard disposal entails.

Into that knowledge breach steps Winston (Clifton Collins Jr) who as the one-armed wonder of the clean-up business, also helps the girls out by sitting with Rose's son - doing a better job than either her sister or her Dad.

There's a lot going on here. Rose, once the archetypal "cheerleader and most likely to succeed" from high school spends nights on her illicit trysts with her married beau and struggling with self-esteem over the "going nowhere affair" (Norah cruelly informs her that mac's wife is pregnant) and her overall downward spiral, of which the economic aspect is somewhat halted by the crime clean-up business. Her son has been acting up at school and Norah simply won't get her own life together.

It might not make for much humour, but the two women manage to wring some comedy out of it, playing a script written by one woman (Megan Holley) and directed by another (Christine Jeffs). There's another woan who figures in the film, though not quite shown; the girls' mother. Her death (and by extension, her life) is a divisive issue for Rose and Norah to work out and of course this has implications for the conclusion.

While it's no one's idea of "family entertainment" (expletives, sexual situations and of course, there's that shotgun suicide right at the beginning), Sunshine Cleaning does have family at its heart, and it is a film with loads of heart, as well as a load on the heart. Something a little different will come your way, but ultimately worth it.

Just Another Friday....Until: Jamaica's "1st Gospel Movie"

"Tomorrow is promised to no one"

that rubric of urgency is repeated throughout this earnest and energetically produced treatised from "Jamericans" Barrivision Limited, who have garnered no small measure of experience in creating features for television and the screen.

This one is billed as "Jamaica's first gospel movie" and while we can't affirm the claim, neither can we disprove it (a conundrum not unfamiliar to Christian witnesses). The action surrounds a classically dysfunctional Jamaican family, set in the run-up to Easter (hence the title). Mother and Father are virtual strangers - she's overworked; he's "married to the TV". Teen daughter is a recent convert to the faith and has the new convert's overarching - and overbearing - zeal. Late teen son, prefers the "worldian" way of long cellphone convos with a variety of girls and hanging with the upcoming gangsta and remains staunchly skeptical. Into this mix coems family from abroad. Like the first, this couple has a converted daughter, but also a mother and father to boot. Son  stly fun

the dire

As an evangelistic piece, 'Friday" works about as well as other pieces in the genre, both foreign ("Fireproof") and local (well....we'll have to check) but as a purely narrative vehicle intended to draw and sustain an audience's attention, it has some....... let's say issues. Some cna be chalked upt ot budget, even though film retains a cinema-worthy look for the most part (one sequence, with noted vocalist AJ Brown singing "Amazing Grace" is a let down). Mainly, the film loses its narrative drive after the "crisis point" - we won't give you the spoiler - and from ther to the end devovles into maudlin territory.

Still, its a worthy "first of its kind" one that brings hope to the genre as a whole and to Jamaican film practitioners and church community in particular.

the film officially premieres at Red Bones this Thursday. go check it, and draw your own conclusions
http://www.justanotherfriday.com/

Time to Pull The Plug: Madea's Big Happy Family Movie Trailer Official (HD)

"I've been sick a long time."

So says Mama Shirley (played in yeoman fashion Tyler Perry staple Loretta Devine), but it may as well have come form the writer-director-star in reference to this franchise. From its beginnings in obscure theatre, Perry's malapropping, gun-toting (she relies on her hands this time around), foul-mouth drag creation made him a household name and oodles of money - to the point where his Tyler Perry Studios receives top billing alongside releasing studio Lionsgate.

But Madea and her "hell-er!!" schtick really has as much miles on it as the beat-up Cadillac that she continues to torture. Like a soap opera that you can skip five episodes and come back spot on with the storyline, or an over-formatted radio station where you can guess the songs in a particular order on nay given day, Madea's "Family" is entirely predictable. Even the few genuinely funny highlights - such as the first time inside Madea's house with Uncle Joe (Perry again, doing an Eddie Murphy), and the "weedheaded" antics of Aunt Bam, cannot rescue the thinking viewer from the tedium of the sundry family dramas, with the revelations coming thick and fast in the film's final third.

Of course, die-hard Madea followers will lap up this latest offering and will revel in the little distractions, like the "By-reeeeeeeeennnnnnnnnnnn!! of the nagging "baby-mama" and the recurrent views of trash talk show host Maury Povich.

The rest of us will simply groan in torture as Madea's death throes continue.

End of the Lines of Succession: 'Little Fockers' Trailer 2010 HD

At the end of this, the third in the Focker saga (remember, it actually began with Meet The Parents), there is the obligatory "baiting" towards expecting another instalment. we strongly counsel against it.

Apart from the fact that the more memorable movie franchises end with the third film, this is one franchise in which the individual films have not been guilty of overstaying their welcome, even with the usual body function jokes and salutory nods to other blockbusters.

The appeal lies mainly in the cast. The producers brilliantly augmented the ensemble in the previous film via vets Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand, and the pair return this time with handy reprisals of their roles. But the core of the Focker franchise si the lead pair: Ben Stiller and Robert de Niro and "Focker 3" zooms in on this axis with laser-like focus.

Jack Byrnes (De Niro) is anxious about the future of his storied family (he's traced them back to 1643) and with heart problems hastening his focus on mortality, he wants to pass on the mantle of "family patriarch" - never mind that he has no sons to continue the Byrnes name. Thus the lot falls to Greg Focker (Stiller) who in this story, is juggling marriage, fatherhood and new job responsibilities.
Into that mix, the producers have tossed Jessica Alba ( a marked improvement from her previous comedic outing, which is still not saying much), as a sexpot pharmacy rep, selling.......you guessed it! - erectile dysfunction pills, who - oddly enough - has the hots for a married, graying former nurse with no substantial material or other accomplishments.

Oh well, stranger things have happened, and Focker's diversions are good for more than a few laughs; much of the dialogue sails along and the aforesaid cast  - even Daisy Tahan as little Samantha Focker - do more than just go with the flow.

Still, none of its virtues can justify extending this series any further. Like any other family visit, it's been fun, but ti's time to go