Reviews

Kiss Me Deadly

Robert Aldrich's blazing adaptation of Mickey Spillane's gut-wrenching nuclear age potboiler turns a well-worn genre on its head and retains its power to shock almost 50 years after it was made. Ralph Meeker yells his way through this movie as the quintessential Mike Hammer: loud, boorish, sexist, bullying and gleefully violent. Watch out for the back-to-front titles and apocalyptic climax. Truly the greatest private-eye movie ever made.

Bleeder

Though opening with a rocking Trainspotting-style intro and plenty of Tarantino-type cult film buffery, Bleeder gradually morphs into a truly horrifying psychodrama. Kim Bodnia delivers a stunning performance as reluctant dad-to-be Leo whose frustration begins a cycle of sickening abuse and ingeniously cruel revenge on the grim and seedy streets of Denmark.

Apollo 440 – Dude Descending A Staircase

Two-CD collection of funk and chill-out

Guided By Voices – Earthquake Glue

Business as usual for Ohio institutions

Hulk – Decca

Free mini poster! More blockbusting belligerence from Kermit's overweight and moody second cousin, or at least from the film with the most laughably dodgy CGI in cinematic history. Has nobody the courage to tell Ang Lee to stick to melodramas where drippy women in bonnets pine for Hugh Grant or Sigourney Weaver plays a '70s swinger? Danny Elfman, colossal hack of multiplex scores, dresses this beast, with Natacha Atlas cameo-ing, while the finale, "Set Me Free", is performed by Scott Weiland, Slash, Duff McKagan, Matt Sorum and Dave Kushner.

Shed Heaven

Long-awaited follow-up to H.M.S. Fable delivers

I Monster – Neveroddoreven

Pervy Sheffield electro duo follow up "Daydream In Blue" hit of two years ago

Bonnie Raitt – The Best Of

California blues mama's late-flowering career revival

Teena Marie – It Must Be Magic

Bonkers but brilliant 1981 album by former Mary Christine Brockert

Less Is More

Haunting, minimalist road movie takes left-field Drugstore Cowboy director back to his roots
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