Dump The Franchise: The Star Trek Classic Movies Heroes & Villains Trading Cards Fizzle!

The Good: Generally cool common and basic chase sets, Collectibility
The Bad: Exceptionally fractured execution of concept, Some of the most obscure autograph signers, Rarities and numbering is problematic (especially for the cost).
The Basics: Rittenhouse Archives closes out their pre-J.J. Abrams movie card sets with the premium Star Trek Classic Movies Heroes & Villains set that ends the concept on an unfortunately low note.


When it comes to Star Trek trading cards, there have been some interesting trends in the various trading card sets and on the long arc of its holding the license, Rittenhouse Archives has done a pretty amazing job of producing trading cards for the fans. That said, not every concept Rittenhouse Archives has tried has worked out ideally. Retrospect is one thing and given the trends that followed, I would probably rate Rittenhouse Archives's Complete Star Trek: The Movies (reviewed here!) trading card set higher if I were to review it today. Sets that followed the Complete Star Trek: The Movies have become prohibitive to collect and Rittenhouse Archives has straddled the fence of creating and following the annoying trends of making impossible-to-collect sets.

But, well before Rittenhouse Archives effectively wittled down the possible number of Star Trek trading card collectors from twenty-five to five, Rittenhouse Archives was busy making ambitious plans to please collectors. Star Trek fans had a lot to be thrilled with, but it was hard to believe the company had anywhere left to go with the Star Trek films when they began with the Complete Star Trek Movies set. Despite starting their explorations of the cinematic Star Trek films with an ambitious and comprehensive set, Rittenhouse Archives churned out three more Star Trek film sets before committing their attention to the new J.J. Abrams Star Trek films. The final of the Classic Star Trek movies sets was the Star Trek Classic Movies Heroes & Villains set and it was released originally in "premium packs." It also had the unfortunate distinction of being a set that feels like a dump of the accumulated autograph cards withheld from prior Star Trek Movies sets.

That is not to say that the Star Trek Classic Movies Heroes & Villains is terrible, but the original release format - with packs that cost as much as boxes of trading cards used to! - the lack of a solid set concept and the emphasis on autographed trading cards that vary incredibly between impressive and utterly obscure performers make for a trading card set that is not particularly good.

Basics/Set Composition

The Star Trek Classic Movies Heroes & Villains was the eighth set of cards that focused on the cinematic Star Trek produced by Rittenhouse Archives. Properly assembled, the set is a collection of 109 trading cards and there is an official Star Trek Classic Movies Heroes & Villains binder from Rittenhouse. All but six of the cards are available in the box of the Star Trek Classic Movies Heroes & Villains cards, making it one of the sets that is a bit easier to collect, though the way the "premium packs" were produced and released make it somewhat irksome to do so. The cards were originally released in boxes that contained fifteen premium packs of nine cards each, two of which were autograph cards. Packs tended to run in the $50 range, the boxes cost as much as a case used to cost and the boxes were guaranteed to have an autograph card from either Leonard Nimoy or William Shatner in it.

Collation in the The Star Trek Classic Movies Heroes & Villains set was quite good. To complete a true master set of The Star Trek Classic Movies Heroes & Villains cards, collectors had to purchase at least four boxes of the cards, as there was a four-box incentive autograph card. As well, there were promotional cards that were not available in boxes or cases and there was one card that was only available through Rittenhouse Archives' Rittenhouse Rewards program (though it was inexpensive in its wrapper cost). But, more than most of the other Rittenhouse Archives trading card sets, the amount of repetition to get the four-box incentive card seemed excessive.

Common Cards

The common card set consists of 54 trading cards, which are printed on standard cardstock and have a glossy UV resistant coating. The fifty-four card common set alternates the heroes and villains of the Star Trek movies, with green for the heroes, red for the adversaries. With fifty-four cards, Rittenhouse Archives caters to putting the cards in binders as the binders have standard nine-card pages.

The concept of the Star Trek Classic Movies Heroes & Villains is a fairly mediocre one. While all of the cards are oriented in the landscape format and universally feature character shots, the choices for characters to focus on and images are somewhat problematic. While all of the main crew members are represented in the "heroes" half (even numbers), the heroes also include obscure supporting heroes like Commander Decker, Commander Rand, and Lily Sloane. There are both versions of Lt. Saavik (Kirstie Alley and Robin Curtis's versions) and there is a noticeable lack of Artim in the supporting hero characters. For the images, it is strange that Rittenhouse Archives utilized an image of Geordi La Forge with the character in his VISOR given that he had artificial eyes for three of the four Star Trek: The Next Generation films.

The villains section of the Star Trek Classic Movies Heroes & Villains has to stretch even more to achieve its concept. Captain Terrell is characterized as a "villain" in the set (he was villainous only after being taken over by a mind-controlling parasite from Khan) and given that Kruge's obscure support staff of Torg and Maltz are included as "villains," it seems odd that Joachim is left out of the set. Similarly, that the Space Probe from Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home is included in the set as a villain makes it somewhat incomprehensible that V'Ger is not included.

All of the common cards in the Star Trek Classic Movies Heroes & Villains set have an individual collector's number stamped on the back. With only 550 common card sets, the Star Trek Classic Movies Heroes & Villains set is one of the few common sets that has high inherent value to it. Rittenhouse Archives does not waste time or space in the Star Trek Classic Movies Heroes & Villains set on text; the cards merely include the character's name, which makes sense for characters like Commander Riker, but less for Gallatin (though, one supposes, if there were a character description for the character, it would be hard to write more than had already been written about him for prior card set releases!).

Chase Cards

There are fifty-five chase cards in The Star Trek Classic Movies Heroes & Villains set, with forty-nine found in the boxes of cards and the remaining six available outside the boxes and packs. The bonus cards that can be found within the boxes were the Tribute cards, Die-Cut Gold Plaque cards, autograph cards and patch cards. Given how the common card set fits perfectly into usual nine-card pages, the fact that the bonus cards are not in nine-card increments and are not universally-oriented (most are portrait-oriented, but the patch cards are landscape-oriented) is problematic.

The most common bonus cards in this set were the Tribute cards, which were found one per pack. The twelve Tribute cards were limited to 475 each and, like the common cards, feature an individually-stamped number on the back. The Tribute cards feature a large picture on the front of each card of a major actor from the Star Trek films who has since died. Major actors like DeForest Kelley, Mark Lenard and Ricardo Montalban are accompanied by the likes of Persis Khambatta, Dame Judith Anderson and Robert Ellenstein. The backs are formatted like an autograph card with the actor and character name. The tribute cards are hearbreaking in that they make fans want the cards to get them signed by the people on them, they are such nice cards!

Also one per pack in the Star Trek Classic Movies Heroes & Villains premium packs were one of fourteen die-cut gold plaque cards. The portrait-oriented, limited to 425 cards, look like gold ribbons bordering a bust shot of each of the main cast members from the Enterprise crews. This is a good-looking set of cards that combines the foil borders with decent images of each of the characters from the Star Trek films . . . except Worf. Inexplicably, the front image on the H12 card features seventh season promotional shot for Worf, as opposed to any image of him from the Star Trek films! Seeing as the back features a shot of Worf from the films, it seems odd that Rittenhouse Archives failed to get an appropriate image for the front of the card.

The Star Trek Classic Movies Heroes & Villains continue the autograph style that Rittenhouse Archives began in their Complete Star Trek: The Movies. The missing prior autograph cards - A107 and A111 - were included in the premium packs. Each box of Star Trek Classic Movies Heroes & Villains was guaranteed to include an autograph from either William Shatner or Leonard Nimoy and they were two of the highlights of the set. The Star Trek Classic Movies Heroes & Villains included yet another Brent Spiner autograph and the rarest autograph in the set was from Joseph Ruskin, which was significant only in that he died two years later. Ruskin was far better known for his role in the original Star Trek than in his supporting role in Star Trek: Insurrection. The high point of the Star Trek Classic Movies Heroes & Villains autograph set is that it includes a Christian Slater autograph card, which is cool. But, Slater's autograph comes up with far less frequency than less well-known performers who had even less substantive roles in the Star Trek films than Slater did, like Gary Faga and Conroy Gideon.

The Star Trek Classic Movies Heroes & Villains continues the patch card set begun in the “Quotable” Star Trek: The Movies cards, which were based upon the patches on the uniforms in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Individually numbered to 250, the two badge cards feature insignia patches made for Rittenhouse Archives for Commander Decker and Lieutenant Ilia. The patch cards were found one per box, as boxtoppers, and were unable to hold their value against the "Quotable" Star Trek Movies patch cards of much more major characters.

Non-Box/Pack Cards

As with most "modern" trading card releases - certainly the ones from Rittenhouse Archives - not all of the cards needed to make a true master set are available in the boxes of these trading cards. In this set, there are only six cards that cannot be found in the boxes. There is the usual promo card which foreshadowed the series release which is common enough to find (P1). There is also a promo card exclusive to the The Star Trek Classic Movies Heroes & Villains trading card binder (P3). The P2 card is a promotional card available only through Non-Sports Update Magazine and it might take a little work to track down (though the magazine offers back issues pretty readily).

There was one other promotional card, which was given away exclusively at the 2011 Philly Non-Sport Show. It remains tough to track down now and, outside its rarity, is nothing particularly special. All four of the promotional cards are landscape oriented and feature two headshots - one hero, one villain.

The remaining cards are the multibox incentive card and the Rittenhouse Rewards cards. For every four boxes of Star Trek Classic Movies Heroes & Villains cards a dealer bought, Rittenhouse Archives provided an A122 Nichelle Nichols as Uhura autograph card. Like most of Rittenhouse’s incentive cards, this autograph card is found sealed in a hard plastic toploader with a gold Rittenhouse Archives seal keeping it inside. This is one of the nicest autograph cards of the set and it is easy to see why Rittenhouse Archives held it back for an incentive card!

The final card in the Star Trek Classic Movies Heroes & Villains set is the Rittenhouse Rewards card. Rittenhouse Rewards cards are exclusive cards that fans can get by sending wrappers from any sets in to Rittenhouse to redeem for cards not otherwise available. For this set, Rittenhouse produced a tenth Star Trek: The Motion Picture hero card of Admiral James T. Kirk. The Rittenhouse Rewards card is essentially an additional common card, which builds the common set up to an odd 55 cards. The Rittenhouse Rewards card is not individually numbered, like the common cards and it is utterly unremarkable and strangely uninteresting for a hard-to-find incentive card.

Overall

Ultimately, the Star Trek Classic Movies Heroes & Villains fills in the gaps and expands the existing Star Trek movie sets . . . but it was hardly necessary. Sadly, the mundane and ill-executed nature of the Star Trek Classic Movies Heroes & Villains makes it feel like the set is a dump of material that was planned for earlier releases that just was not returned in time.

This set culls images from all ten of the classic Star Trek Movies, reviewed here!

For other Star Trek movie trading cards, please be sure to visit my reviews of:
The “Quotable” Star Trek: The Movies
Star Trek Movies In Motion
Star Trek: Nemesis

3.5/10

For other card reviews, please visit my Card Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Review This Again: The Times They Are A-Changin'

The Good: Amazing lyrics, Moments of vocals
The Bad: Musically unimaginative, Short
The Basics: Bob Dylan's classic album The Times They Are A-Changin’ is burdened by frontloading and plagued by songs that use licks from the title track to make a musically mundane masterpiece!


[There is a big meme in the art community going around now called "Draw This Again." In the meme, artists illustrate how they have grown in their chosen medium by putting side-by-side pictures of art they created in the past and now. My wife had the great idea that I should do something similar with my reviewing. So, for 2017, I will be posting occasional "Review This Again" reviews, where I revisit subjects I had previously reviewed and review them again, through a lens of increased age, more experience, and - for some - greater familiarity with the subject. This review is one such review, where I am re-experiencing The Times They Are A-Changin’ after many years and with more experience as both a reviewer and one who has heard much of the Bob Dylan library. The album was originally reviewed here!]

Given the vast career and amazing writing of Bob Dylan, it is hard to imagine him as a "one-hit wonder." The truth is, Dylan's music has barely been recognized by the Grammy Awards - he has almost as many Grammy Hall Of Fame awarded singles/tracks as he does actual Grammy Awards and several of the post-1980 Grammy Awards were, arguably, de facto "Lifetime Achievement" awards (Time Out Of Mind lacks the iconic tracks of The Times They Are A-Changin’!) - and he has built an enduring career out of a fanbase that continues to support him, rather than truly innovating or surprising mainstream culture. So, going back to Bob Dylan's earlier albums is an exploration in some ways of how massively American culture has changed since the 1960s. Bob Dylan might well be the embodiment of the argument of the war between art and commerce. At the forefront of that argument would have to be The Times They Are A-Changin’.

The Times They Are A-Changin’ was Bob Dylan's third studio album and coming off the previous year's platinum album, the gold The Times They Are A-Changin’ was a comparative commercial failure. Given that the title track is the first song on the album and dominates it, The Times They Are A-Changin’ has all the makings of arguing that Bob Dylan would have been a one-hit wonder if he were competing in today's market. And yet. 1964, when The Times They Are A-Changin’ was released, saw Dylan releasing two albums and building his fanbase through touring. And he has had a career that has spanned more than fifty years because he has something to say and his career was given time to find its place and for the artist to develop his sound. One has to wonder how many "one hit wonders" would have developed into the next Dylan had their careers not been cut short by labels concerned more with commerce than art . . .

All that said, The Times They Are A-Changin’ is very much a pop-folk album that is artistically the embodiment of a one-hit wonder. It is a virtually impossible task to follow-up on the quality of the song "The Times They Are A-Changin’" so any album that tried was going to be an ambitious project that was instantly hamstrung. Bob Dylan and producer Tom Wilson seemed to realize that and they put the title track right up front and hoped that people would listen beyond the first track more than once. That, as it turns out, is a tougher task than one might want to admit.

Musically, "The Times They Are A-Changin'" is the album's most complicated, memorable and richly-developed track. Bob Dylan sings, plays guitar and harmonica and he wrote a track that has a great melody to it. So, when he follows the opening song with the depressingly repetitive and simple "Ballad Of Hollis Brown" and then follows that (after a similar track) with "One Too Many Mornings" - a song that has wonderful lyrics that utilizes a number of the same musical licks (direct progressions of notes, the same tune in places!) as the first track - The Times They Are A-Changin’ becomes something of a chore to sit through.

With only ten songs, adding up to 45:36, The Times They Are A-Changin’ is short. It is, however, an embodiment of the quality of Bob Dylan's creativity as an artist and performer. Bob Dylan wrote all ten songs and he performs the primary vocals on all of the tracks as well. Dylan is also the only credited musician, playing the acoustic guitar and harmonica on the songs without additional accompaniment. The only major creative aspect he is not credited with is producing the album, but Tom Wilson seemed to help define Bob Dylan's sound and given that they continued to work together after Dylan started to achieve commercial success, it is hard to argue that he did not respect Dylan's vision for the album.

Vocally, The Times They Are A-Changin’ features Bob Dylan with a clear singing voice. There are only hints of Dylan's iconic mumbling drawl in the performances on The Times They Are A-Changin’. Instead, Bob Dylan opts for clear vocals that articulately present his lyrics. In addition to singing the words clearly, Dylan illustrates fairly decent lung capacity with holding notes on songs like "With God On Our Side," which also stretches him to the higher registers, though he performs mostly in a comfortable tenor range.

Bob Dylan has always had amazing poetics - which makes it completely understandable that he would receive the Nobel Prize for Literature. Dylan does a rare thing when he constructs a musical argument on the malleability of nationalism with "With God On Our Side." Over the course of the song, he charts the philosophical progression of being American and creating enemies to fight for the purpose of maintaining the military-industrial complex and justifying it. With lines like "Oh the history books tell it / They tell it so well / The cavalries charged / The Indians fell / The cavalries charged / The Indians died / Oh the country was young / With God on its side" ("With God On Our Side"), Dylan starts the listener down the rhetorical argument that comes full circle with an ironic question about Judas Iscariot's relationship with God!

As one might expect of Bob Dylan, much of The Times They Are A-Changin’ is political in its lines. While it might get buried as a literal b-side, Dylan has something to say on all of his songs, like "Only A Pawn In Their Game." When Dylan sings "A bullet from the back of a bush took Medgar Evers' blood / A finger fired the trigger to his name / A handle hid out in the dark / A hand set the spark / Two eyes took the aim / Behind a man's brain / But he can't be blamed / He's only a pawn in their game" ("Only A Pawn In Their Game"), he illustrates a backbone and a poetic style that is distinctive and strong.

Of course, it is virtually impossible to compete with "The Times They Are A-Changin'." The instantly memorable rhyme scheme of "Come senators, congressmen / Please heed the call / Don't stand in the doorway / Don't block up the hall / For he that gets hurt / Will be he who has stalled / There's a battle outside / And it is ragin' / It'll soon shake your windows / And rattle your walls / For the times they are a-changin" ("The Times They Are A-Changin'") creates such a distinctive, sea chanty-like tone as to make the song iconic and powerful!

That said, virtually every compilation album worth its salt will have "The Times They Are A-Changin'" on it and that makes The Times They Are A-Changin’ a tougher sell as an album. The Times They Are A-Changin’ has that song, but the dated references on the other songs are starting to age poorly and most of the rest of the tracks live in the shadow of the title track in a way that makes them forgettable. Objectively, there is quality to The Times They Are A-Changin’, but it gets a mildly positive rating more for its objective quality than being a great, listenable, album.

The best track is "The Times They Are A-Changin'," the low point is "North Country Blues."

For other Bob Dylan reviews, be sure to check out my takes on:
The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan
Another Side Of Bob Dylan
Early Album Boxed Set
Blonde On Blonde
Blood On The Tracks
No Direction Home
Biograph
Love And Theft
Modern Times
Shadows In The Night

5.5/10

For other music reviews, please check out my Music Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Meh. Williams Smoked Cheddar Is Unfortunately Unremarkable.

The Good: Inexpensive (comparatively), Does not taste bad, Easy to work with
The Bad: Poor melting quality, Not the most vibrant flavor
The Basics: Williams Smoked Cheddar is a bit of a disappointment, especially for those looking for a vibrant and enjoyable cheese.


There is something wonderful about getting to the point where one's palate is refined enough that one may instantly tell the difference between cheese and "cheese product" or "cheese food." Sadly, I tend not to look so closely when I am buying cheese, which I discovered when my wife and I sat down to our New Year's celebration and broke out the Williams Smoked Cheddar, which we had been saving for the event. Williams Smoked Cheddar is a pasteurized process cheese food and the difference between it and cheddar cheese is unfortunately noticeable the moment one places it in their mouth. That does not make Williams Smoked Cheddar inherently bad, but when one is expecting steak and they get ground chuck . . . Williams Smoked Cheddar is, expectations aside, an underwhelming cheese food.

I found Williams Smoked Cheddar cheese at the grocery store on sale at $3.99 for the 8 oz. block right after Christmas and in retrospect, I feel like we overpaid for it!

Basics

Williams is a manufacturer of cheeses and cheese foods in Michigan. The intent of most Williams cheeses is that they will be cheeses that hold their own as snacks that may be served to consumers in fancier settings. They specialize in cheddar cheeses that have different flavors infused into them, like ranch. Williams cheeses come in 8 oz. blocks and they are fairly easy to find in that form.

The Smoked Cheddar cheese is exactly as its name implies. This is a dark orange cheese without any garnishes, additional flavors or embedded spices.

Ease Of Preparation

Williams Smoked Cheddar cheese is a cheese food, so more often than not, it is used on its own or as an ingredient in a recipe. Preparation of the cheese is pretty simple: remove the plastic wrap it is sealed in and cut into it. The Smoked Cheddar cheese is exceptionally easy to work with. This cheese handles exceptionally easily, slicing simply with my cheese plane or grating finely with our cheese grater. Unfortunately, though, it does not melt very well. My wife and I have made our rare burgers medium well by trying to get the thin slices of Williams Smoked Cheddar we have put on them to melt!

Taste

On its own, the Williams Smoked Cheddar cheese has an appropriately smoky, hickory scent to it. The smell evokes mental images of fires and warm places. The smoke scent is distinct and fairly mild, especially compared to sharper cheddar cheeses, even sharp smoked cheddars. The smoke scent dominates the cheese food's aroma.

In the mouth, Williams Smoked Cheddar is waxy and mildly cheddar flavor. The smoke flavoring dominates the flavor, just as it does the scent, but beyond the smoke, the palate is dominated by the cheese food's waxy texture. That the cheese flavor does not actually blend with the smoke flavor and allow it to breathe is a bit disappointing and leads to a somewhat underwhelming taste experience.

The Williams Smoked Cheddar is so mild that it does not leave an aftertaste in one's mouth after it is consumed.

Nutrition

Williams Cheeses are not intended to be all that one lives on. For those who try to survive on this, the Smoked Cheddar cheese food is not a terribly healthy choice. A serving size is considered a one inch block (1 oz.). In that, there are 100 calories, 70 of which are from fat. This cheese has 30% of one's daily recommended saturated fat intake and 13% of the RDA of sodium. On the plus side, it does have 15% of the RDA of calcium and has six grams of protein.

Obviously, Smoked Cheddar cheese is a dairy product, so those who are lactose intolerant will have problems with it. This cheese is made primarily of cheese (swiss, cheddar and colby, which might explain its very mild flavor), water and skim milk. That makes it mostly natural, despite including preservatives.

Storage/Cleanup

As a cheese, Williams Smoked Cheddar cheese should be kept refrigerated. So long as that happens, it ought to stay fresh for several months. I am utterly unable to write about shelf-life as our eight-ounce block was gone within a week of being opened! So long as it is kept in an airtight, cold environment, it ought to remain fresh and supple. Our Smoked Cheddar block had an expiration date of September 15, 2017, which is pretty good for a cheese purchased at Christmastime, 2016.

Williams Smoked Cheddar is a cheese, so it is not going to stain or ruin anything unless it is ground into a fabric. Baring that, cleanup of nonporous surfaces is as easy as wiping them with a damp cloth.

Overall

Sadly, Williams Smoked Cheddar is an unremarkable cheese that might be a fair garnish for a cracker, but it stands up poorly on its own or when used in recipes/on decent food!

For other cheese reviews, please check out my takes on:
Sartori Rosemary & Olive Oil Asiago
Cappiello Zesty Marinated Mozzarella Cheese
Yancy's Fancy XXX Sharp Cheddar Cheese

4/10

For other food and drink reviews, please visit my Cheese Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Stylish And Stupid: War On Everyone Does Not Quite Live Up!

The Good: Decent performances, Good direction
The Bad: Mediocre characters, Not overly funny, Blase plot
The Basics: War On Everyone follows two corrupt cops on their criminal venture to rip off a major crime ring.


Every now and then, there is a film where the basic plot summary completely sells me on the idea. The concept of a comedy with Alexander Skarsgard where he plays a corrupt cop who is blackmailing criminals sounds like a potential winner to me. The film is War On Everyone and it continues the trend of crime-themed comedies, like Observe And Report (reviewed here!). While violent, as this style of movie tends to be, it is not so graphic that it guts the humor when the film goes for laughs.

Unfortunately, War On Everyone plays for an unfortunately low sense of humor in a caper comedy that could have been much better. Having a corrupt cop criticizing the spelling on a homeless kid's begging sign is actually fairly funny, but it comes on the heels of homophobic, transphobic musings and jokes that play off a particularly flat joke making fun of a bald jockey. The result is an unfortunately inconsistent film that never quite lands.

Opening with Terry and Bob running down a mime who is involved with a robbery, Terry and Bob are revealed to be police officers and partners. Neither, however, are upstanding citizens - Terry drives drunk and is constantly scratching because he has thrush, Bob assaulted a fellow officer following a racist comment by a fellow cop and swears at his children. The two return to the Albuquerque Police Department following their suspension and go back on the street where they snort some cocaine with a snitch whom they want to help them rip off a major crime ring.

Terry and Bob begin a search for the crime boss, Reynard, who is at the center of the impending caper. To that end, they visit a strip club, rip off a petty criminal, and start executing criminals who are working for the elusive crime boss Lord James Mangan. When Reggie flees town after the pair rough up a suspect, Terry and Bob head from New Mexico to Iceland to try to get the million dollars they think Reggie took with him. There, they learn about Mangan and they return to New Mexico to learn there are new charges pending against them and they begin the search for Mangan in Albuquerque. After Terry takes in the son of a suspect who killed her own husband, he is abducted by Mangan's men and when an attempt is made on Bob's life, the pair realize they might be in over their heads.

War On Everyone never quite settles on committing to being funny, which is unfortunate because the film gets high marks for style. The musical selections, the film's direction, sets and set dressings are pretty well-executed and they pair nicely with lines that allude to the fact that Terry and Bob have a lot of knowledge outside their expertise on how to get away with everything short of murder. Terry knows a lot about music, Bob makes references to Steven Soderberg, writer and director John Michael McDonagh clearly tried to prevent the protagonists from being flat, monolithically bad people.

But the problem with writing antiheroes and corrupt characters for protagonists is that there has to be something likable about them and neither Terry, nor James ever get there. The film's attempts to use racism for humor does not quite land - save the joke about Reggie being exceptionally easy to find in Iceland because he's a black man in Iceland. McDonagh seems to try to balance that by having Terry having sex with a black woman, but the humor surrounding dialogue about different ethnicities is played as too angry to be ever truly funny.

One of the high points of War On Everyone is seeing Malcolm Barrett in the role of Reggie. Barrett performs Reggie without any of the off-putting humor that made him hilarious as Lem in Better Off Ted (Season 1 reviewed here!). In War On Everyone, Barrett is physically wired and he plays the role with an energy that is palpable and engaging to watch; he steals every scene he is in.

War On Everyone is led by Alexander Skarsgard and Michael Pena. Skarsgard, obviously, has the physical performance for playing a violent cop down perfectly from his time on True Blood (reviewed here!) and Michael Pena continues to deliver his perfect sense of comic timing for his lines as Bob. But neither Skarsgard, nor Pena are able to make their characters remotely likable and as hard as it is to imagine, the scenes they share with Paul Reiser (the police chief in the film) lead to them being overshadowed by the veteran comic. That said, Pena and Skarsgard play off one another masterfully for their banter, especially in the scenes where their characters are being called on the carpet by Reiser's Stanton.

The death knell of War On Everyone comes subtly, in the middle of the film. Around the middle of the film, I consciously realized that I did not care at all about how the movie would be resolved. The lack of ability to invest in the characters, the situation or even the bizarre caper they find themselves embroiled in makes War On Everyone more of a flop than a success and a film that is impossible to recommend.

For other movies currently in theaters, please check out my reviews of:
Underworld: Blood Wars
Passengers
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

3.5/10

For other movie reviews, please check out my Film Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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A Fabric Softening Product That Works! JMK 2 Pc. Dryer Balls

The Good: Inexpensive, Environmentally responsible, Actually works, Easy to clean
The Bad: Long-term durability is unclear
The Basics: One of the pleasant surprises of recent purchases, the JMK 2 Pc. Dryer Balls actually work incredibly well!


Every now and then, my wife comes up with a purchase that I am initially skeptical of, but quickly turns into a great investment for us. The JMK 2 Pc. Dryer Balls are one such product.

My wife suggested we purchase the JMK 2 Pc. Dryer Balls in order to save on dryer sheets in the long-term. We've been using them for the past two months now and it is impossible for me to come up with aspects of the balls to criticize. We have a surprisingly crappy gas-heated clothes dryer and for the past four years, we have gone through a slew of boxes of dryer sheets for our fabric softening needs. My wife had been looking into the JMK 2 Pc. Dryer Balls for months and when they surfaced at our local discount store, she picked them up for us right away. While we had been looking at them online in the $15 range, they became irresistible to buy at $2.99 for the pair!

The JMK Dryer Balls are bright pink plastic spheres that are covered in spikes. The 2 1/2" in diameter hollow plastic balls have 3/16" long spikes all over the balls. The JMK 2 Pc. Dryer Balls are incredibly easy to use. Simply place the two Dryer Balls in the dryer with your wet clothes and run your dryer like usual.

The Dryer Balls have a fabric softening quality to them. Since starting to use the JMK 2 Pc. Dryer Balls, we have had to empty the lint trap in the dryer an average of three times per full cycle. The dryer balls somehow manages to completely eliminate lint on blankets, clothes, towels, etc. Years worth of lint that we never knew we had disappear from all of our fabrics when the JMK Dryer Balls are used in the dryer. The JMK 2 Pc. Dryer Balls heat up in the dryer and get soft, which might mean they might eventually crack, but after two months of use, ours have remained entirely intact!

On the other end, the clothes, bedding and linens that are put through dryer cycles with the JMK 2 Pc. Dryer Balls come out fluffier, lint-free and softer than whenever we used fabric softening sheets. It is amazing that two little plastic devices manage to completely soften and lighten clothes in a way that fabric softener and fabric softener sheets never have.

Found at full price or on sale, the JMK 2 Pc. Dryer Balls seem to work absolutely perfectly, making them a great investment!

For other laundry products, please check out my reviews of:
Arm & Hammer Essentials Lavender & Linen Fabric Softener Sheets
Tide Coldwater Fresh Scent Detergent
Shout Wipe & Go Instant Stain Remover Wipes

10/10

For other home and garden product reviews, please check out my Home And Garden Product Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Love Story At The End Of The Universe: Passengers Is Sweet And Delivers!

The Good: Acting, Tone, Special effects, Direction
The Bad: Predictable plot conceit
The Basics: Outside a generic character conflict that sets in motion a "ticking clock" that is painfully predictable, Passengers is a remarkably satisfying character study.


Say what you will about releasing films around the winter holidays for getting families out to theaters, but there is so much going on near the end of the year that it is virtually impossible to watch everything that is released in December. During the early months of 2017, I am playing catch-up and the first film I wanted to watch was Passengers.

Passengers was released at the end of 2016 during Oscar Pandering Season to offer Academy voters an alternative to Arrival (reviewed here!) to fill the genre niche that has made it to the Best Picture nominees the past few years (The Martian was last year's token genre work). Passengers has a lot in common with The Martian (reviewed here!) as both works start with characters who are fundamentally stranded in space before mixing it up. And while Arrival traded on a fairly strong science fiction premise, Passengers is more of a character study and it allows for Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence to show off their acting chops as opposed to working a plot gimmick.

Or, at least, that is how Passengers could have been. Passengers is a creative, science fiction, answer to the two classic hypothetical questions: "If you were stranded on a desert island and could bring one person with you, who would it be?" and "What would you do if you were the last person on Earth?" But the moment the protagonist makes a terrible decision and then lies about it, Passengers becomes a "ticking clock" movie as the viewer waits for the film's core relationship to fall apart from the truth being revealed. And, writer Jon Spaihts springs his storytelling trap in the most banal way possible (perhaps all that time spent with Ridley Scott made him unimaginative in that he uses the old trope that androids cannot be trusted). Beyond the use of tropes and a generic character conflict, Passengers manages to get a lot right.

The colony ship Avalon is headed for Homestead II when it encounters an asteroid field and one of its reactors is damaged. That leads to Jim Preston being awakened and told the ship is four months away from the new colony. It does not take long before Preston realizes that he is the only person to have been awakened and that the Avalon is not four months out of Homestead II. Learning that he is 90 years out from Homestead II, Jim tries to send a message to Earth, but learns it will be more than fifty years before he gets any reply. He is given hope that he might not be alone on the journey when he encounters an android bartender, Arthur. After taking Arthur's advice to enjoy where he is now, Jim breaks into an executive suite and does things like play basketball, have dance-offs against a hologram and even goes for a spacewalk.

Returning to the ship after a spacewalk, Preston finds the hibernation pod of Aurora Lane, a writer who is also a passenger. Preston learns how to wake Aurora up and has a moral debate over the ethics of taking her out of hibernation and stranding her aboard the ship with him. When his loneliness wins out, Preston wakes Aurora up and Preston feels immediate remorse, opting to hide from Aurora that he was responsible for waking her up. Preston finds Lane after she starts to wander around and quickly discovers the perk of her being awake, as she is a Gold Class Passenger and gets better meals than him (a lowly mechanic). Lane starts to interview Preston and he soon learns that Lane, as a journalist, actually had a round-trip ticket and his awakening her completely destroyed her life. When the truth comes out, Preston and Lane's relationship is shattered, which makes things complicated for them when the Avalon begins to break down and a member of the flight crew, Gus, is awakened.

Passengers is instantly notable for the quality of the acting and the tone. Passengers is intriguing and it opens as an intimate character study of a man suffering from unimaginable loneliness. That allows Chris Pratt to act alone, emoting only to the camera and primarily in reaction shots. Pratt, Jennifer Lawrence and Laurence Fishburne are masters of emoting with their eyes and with minimal facial expressions. The trio emotes so impressively that it is almost only through their ability to express emotions that one realizes just how masterfully Michael Sheen plays Arthur without betraying any emotions.

The relationship between Preston and Lane has all the makings of a contrived relationship; two people with nothing inherently in common being forced together by circumstance. But Lawrence and Pratt have such good on-screen chemistry and the questions Lane asks Preston are compelling enough to make the viewer invest in their relationship. The viability of Lane and Preston's relationship might not seem realistic or practical at all for a terrestrial, day to day relationship, but for the "two people stranded without anyone else" conceit, they make the relationship seem perfectly natural and plausible.

As one might expect from a big science fiction film, the special effects for Passengers are impressive. The sets are beautiful and the Avalon is a distinctive ship with a clean look and a very practical appearance (the fact that there are binders around filled with information makes perfect sense for an environment where computers could fail!). The costumes, computer-generated effects and spacescapes are impressive and help the viewer get immersed in a film that could otherwise seem very slow.

Passengers is smart and enjoyable and while it is on the big screen, it is a film that should be enjoyed there!

For other movies currently in theaters, please check out my reviews of:
Underworld: Blood Wars
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
Doctor Strange

9.5/10

For other movie reviews, please check out my Film Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Not Really Jessica Jones: Jessica Jones - The Pulse: The Complete Collection Fizzles

The Good: Moments of focus, Some of the artwork, First story
The Bad: Second story is an outright dud, Lack of focus and character development, Erratic artwork
The Basics: Jessica Jones - The Pulse: The Complete Collection is a let-down for fans of Jessica Jones and the Marvel Universe as it tells very fractured stories.


I started reading books that focused on Jessica Jones because I became a fan of the Netflix television incarnation of Jessica Jones (Season 1 is reviewed here!). After reading the first proper volumes of Jessica Jones's books, I picked up Jessica Jones - The Pulse: The Complete Collection. Jessica Jones - The Pulse: The Complete Collection is a bit of a misnomer as it, unlike Alias, is not actually driven by Jessica Jones.

The concept behind The Pulse was that Jessica Jones and Ben Urich would uncover super hero stories and report them for The Daily Bugle. Unfortunately, the execution of Jessica Jones - The Pulse: The Complete Collection was far more scattershot. While Jessica Jones mulls being pregnant, Ben Urich investigates two stories that are brought to him. And the two stories that follow that formula are separated by a self-referential story that is so pointless, it is hard to understand how it ever got written.

Jessica Jones, pregnant with Luke Cage's child, is called to The Daily Bugle where she is offered a job. Her first super hero story for the Bugle is to figure out what happened to the reporter Terri Kidder. Terri was at the scene of a fight between the Vulture and Spider-Man, who gets scooped by the local news. Lacking a story, she has lunch with a friend who works at Oscorp and she learns people have begun going missing at Oscorp. When Kidder interviews Norman Osborn, he murders her and drops her body from up on high as the Green Goblin. Jones, Urich and others from the Bugle investigate the murder and Urich puts together that Osborn is the Green Goblin. When Jessica Jones is part of the team sent to apprehend Osborn, she is wounded and believes that she has lost the baby, which causes her to panic and for Luke Cage to work with Spider-Man to apprehend and expose Osborn once and for all.

The second story of Jessica Jones - The Pulse: The Complete Collection finds Jessica Jones and Luke Cage wounded when their apartment is blown up. While Jones waits for news on Cage's condition, Nick Fury, Danny Rand and Captain America arrives. Shortly thereafter, the hospital is attacked and Cage goes missing. Jones is captured by HYDRA and made an offer to join them in exchange for turning on S.H.I.E.L.D. and everyone else she knows. Jessica Jones is buoyed along by S.H.I.E.L.D. agents past and present until Ben Urich recalls a place that Cage might have been taken.

While Ben Urich investigates what appears to be a pretty straightforward robbery that was broken up by a smelly Daredevil in his old yellow suit, Jessica Jones visits Sue Richards and Carol Danvers at the Baxter Building. Urich is clued in that the hero who broke up the robbery might be a former Avenger named D-Man. While Urich looks into D-Man, Jones, Danvers and Cage are looking at new costume options for Luke Cage when Jones's water breaks. After getting kicked out of her previous hospital, Jones is rescued by the Avengers and brought to Dr. Strange to deliver her baby. When Cage proposes to Jones, she has to think about it, but in contemplating her first meeting with Luke Cage, Jessica Jones comes to a decision.

The story that uncovers the identity of the Green Goblin is generally well-written and well-resented. Norman Osborn is a killer who has stepped over the line and in Jessica Jones - The Pulse: The Complete Collection, Osborn is finally brought down. Apparently, Ben Urich put together the pieces years before and the Daily Bugle were nearly sued out of existence. So, even within this story, there is the sense that the story has been done before.

The "Secret Wars" crossover is remarkably unsatisfying. Unless one has a clue about the events of Secret Wars (reviewed here!), then this whole section of Jessica Jones - The Pulse: The Complete Collection is just a pointless diversion that goes nowhere and makes references to nothing that is at all clear within the story within the book.

Finally, the last story is incredibly simple and is more a plot function with a divergence to remind readers that D-Man once existed, which makes it somewhat pointless. The reference to an article - not in the volume - that J. Jonah Jameson wrote about the Avengers and Luke Cage makes Jessica Jones turning against him comprehensible only through context clues and it is not at all satisfying.

The artwork in Jessica Jones - The Pulse: The Complete Collection is inconsistent and makes a slow transition from a very traditional comic book look and feel with good flow within and between panels to the style familiar to readers of Alias for its repetitive panels and lack of genuine expressiveness.

Ultimately, Jessica Jones - The Pulse: The Complete Collection is a fractured book that may easily be passed by without leaving the reader feeling like they missed anything.

For other Jessica Jones books, please visit my reviews of:
Jessica Jones, Alias Volume 1
Jessica Jones, Alias Volume 2
Jessica Jones, Alias Volume 3
Jessica Jones, Alias Volume 4

2.5/10

For other graphic novel reviews, please check out my Graphic Novel Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Agent Carter Is Not The "Life Of The Party" For The Next Big Mission!

The Good: Decent performances, Good use of humor
The Bad: Incredibly contrived plot, Forced use of Thompson, No real character development
The Basics: "Life Of The Party" has a wounded Peggy Carter forced to rely upon her worst enemy in her attempt to save Dr. Wilkes.


I admire ambitious television. There is a fine balance between complicated, ambitious, television and television that just throws far too much out there to actually be worthwhile. By the sixth episode of the second season of Agent Carter, "Life Of The Party," it is hard for viewers not to feel like there is so much going on that it is bordering on sloppy. After all, the whole idea of the West Coast SSR allowed the show to put the elements that did not work as well to rest. One of those elements was Jack Thompson, yet "Life Of The Party" puts him and Vernon Masters back in play, as opposed to focusing on the critical characters of the Strategic Scientific Reserve.

"Life Of The Party" continues the story from "The Atomic Job” (reviewed here!) and it is impossible to discuss the new episode without some references as to what happened in that episode. After all, Carter was wounded during the mission to prevent Whitney Frost from getting a nuclear weapon from the Roxxon facility and Dr. Wilkes continues to slip further and further away from the real world because of the Zero Matter. Without understanding how wounded Carter was before now, it is hard to reconcile Carter sitting out the bulk of the episode's action!

Opening with Dr. Wilkes experiencing the dark realm of the Zero Matter before Peggy calls him back, the wounded Agent Carter suggests that they create a new containment vessel for the Zero Matter. At Chadwick's home, the politician placates Frost by telling her he has managed to call a meeting of the Council for her. The wounded Carter pushes herself to return to work to save Dr. Wilkes, despite barely being able to walk. To infiltrate Chadwick's campaign fundraiser to get close to Frost to get access to the Zero Matter, Agent Carter interrogates Dottie Underwood and attempts to enlist her. Carter breaks Underwood out and, of course, Underwood almost instantly attempts to betray them.

While Whitney Frost prepares for the evening, Carter preps Underwood on getting a blood sample from Frost. At the party, Thompson and Masters show up, much to the alarm of Jarvis and Underwood, who are already at the party. After Underwood gets the sample, she slips away and witnesses Frost reveal herself to the Council. When Chadwick turns on Frost, she eliminates all of her enemies! With Underwood in the wind, Carter and her team have to retreat with the Zero Matter sample.

The plot of "Life Of The Party" is somewhat problematic in that the SSR has two offices and neither Sousa nor Carter trust anyone at either office. While the idea of working with Underwood is a fun plot, it is one that feels especially contrived, even for a nascent spy organization. At least the episode is not so foolish as to make it appear that Dottie Underwood is at all stupid.

Indeed, Underwood is well restored to the Agent Carter narrative in "Life Of The Party." Underwood was a super spy in the first season and she was characterized then as Carter's equal, if opposite. So, when Carter trains Underwood for the mission, when she observes that Wilkes is not touching things, she makes an objective test of her own. That level of observation and experimentation is clever.

"Life Of The Party" is one of Hayley Atwell's best performances on Agent Carter. Carter was deeply wounded in the prior episode and she is not, frankly, a super-hero. She has no super-healing ability, so the fact that it is only two days since she was nearly mortally wounded requires Peggy Carter to limp through most of "Life Of The Party." More than her American accent, Atwell succeeds at the physical performance of Carter as a wounded warrior.

The humor in "Life Of The Party" is well-executed. Dottie is used brilliantly for her efficiency as a spy and the humor that comes from putting her back in play with Jarvis works quite well. And while Thompson is somewhat forced back into the narrative, Vernon Masters is played very convincingly by Kurtwood Smith. While Masters has obvious ties to the Council (which is essentially HYDRA), Smith plays him with a level of depth that makes him seem anything but monolithic.

"Life Of The Party" does not actually include much in the way of character development; the Council was pragmatic before this, Chadwick was spineless, and Thompson was ambitious. Even Dottie Underwood remains in character by seizing the opportunity to survive her encounter with Frost. "Life Of The Party" is plot-heavy Agent Carter and while its climax takes a turn for melodramatic and farcical, it is not the worst episode of the series by any measure!

For other works with Bridget Regan, please visit my reviews of:
"The Lady In The Lake" - Agent Carter
Agent Carter - Season 1
John Wick

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Agent Carter - The Complete Second Season, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the final season of Agent Carter here!
Thanks!]

4.5/10

For other television and movie reviews, please check out my Movie Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Purr-fect Catwoman! The 2016 Catwoman Hallmark Ornament Is Sexy Fun!

The Good: Awesome coloring, Cool sculpt, Great balance, Great paintjob, Fair price!
The Bad: No problems that I can find!
The Basics: The 2016 Catwoman Limited Edition Hallmark Batman television series ornament is incredible and worth tracking down!


Over the long term, I am very reticent about giving out perfect ratings on products. The truth is, having objective standards for quality makes me a pretty harsh critic on some things. But, when perfection appears before me, I do not try to deny it. As such, when I finally got my hands on the 2016 Catwoman Hallmark ornament and unboxed it, it was so hard to deny that it was a perfect ornament, that I stopped trying! 2016 netted very few truly perfect ornaments from Hallmark's annual line, but Catwoman truly lives up to the potential and its hype! Catwoman was a limited edition ornament that was produced by Hallmark Keepsake and was the second in a series of Batman classic television series themed ornaments focused on the iconic villains of the show.

For the second ornament in the limited edition line, Hallmark got everything absolutely right, rendering the Julie Newmar version of the character perfectly. The 2016 Catwoman ornament is one that ought to be hunted down for collectors who might have missed it during the October release!

Basics

Catwoman ornament faithfully presents Catwoman in her black and speckled catsuit, which was the television show character’s costume, at least for the Julie Newmar version. This is Catwoman in her burglar costume, high heels, low belt, necklace, gloves, ears headband, and mask which does very little to hide her secret identity. The sculpt is truly accurate and features a facial sculpt that is reminiscent of Julie Newmar and includes a giant diamond being held in Catwoman's right hand. The ornament, released in 2016, is truly perfect for an ornament based upon the costume used in the 1960’s Batman television show. Measuring four and five-eighths inches tall, 2" wide and 7/8" thick, Catwoman ornament is one of six DC super hero-based ornaments released by Hallmark in stores in 2016 and does not have any noticeable issues with it. The limited edition Catwoman ornament came with an original retail price of $15.95 and it sold out at most Hallmark Gold Crown stores long before the season came to an end.

The Hallmark Catwoman ornament is made of durable plastic. Catwoman’s catsuit costume is colored black, with metallic flecks of purple, gold, and black on both the catsuit and tiny ears on the headband atop Catwoman's head. One of the coolest aspects of the sculpt is that Catwoman includes her gaudy necklace, gloves and a giant diamond (obviously, made of plastic). The high heels and fingers have incredible detailing. Equally impressive is the fact that the facial sculpt is clearly that of Julie Newmar, for the hair, the cheekbones and even the eyes!

Catwoman ornament features a version of Catwoman who looks virtually identical to Julie Newmar as Catwoman. The detailing for the facial sculpt is matched by incredible detailing on aspects like her hair. Both her hair and the skin tones for the cheeks feature realistic depth and shading for the coloring. This is an incredibly realistic-looking character ornament!

Features

As a Hallmark Keepsake ornament, Catwoman could have a sound feature, but this does not. Instead, it trades on the realistic sculpt and coloring and limited quantity for its production more than any gimmick. Instead, this version of Catwoman is simply the ornament without any additional features or selling points.

Balance

As with all ornaments, the intent of the Hallmark Keepsake Catwoman ornament is to be hung on a Christmas Tree. And for those creating the ultimate superhero Christmas Tree, Catwoman ornament is one of the indispensable villains in ornament form. The ornament has the standard brass hook loop embedded into the top of Catwoman’s head, behind the cat ears on the headband. From there, the ornament, when affixed to a tree with a hook is perfectly balanced. The feet look like they are in a stable position and the sassy leg pose looks great with the proper balance!

Collectibility

Hallmark Keepsake began delving into the collectibles market in 1991 with Star Trek when it introduced the exceptionally limited edition U.S.S. Enterprise ornament (reviewed here!). Since then, they have made ornament replicas of almost all major franchises like DC comics, The Wizard Of Oz and Harry Potter. The Catwoman ornament was a limited edition ornament that continued the collection of Batman (1960's television show) villain ornaments and given that it was a limited edition ornament, it was unsurprising that it has appreciated in value. For as long as Hallmark continues to produce limited edition ornaments based on Batman villains, especially of this quality level, one suspects Catwoman will continue to appreciate! Right now is the best possible time to find it as it might be found on clearance at a handful of Hallmark stores in the U.S. for a limited time.

Overview

Fans of Catwoman, the 1960s version of Batman, Julie Newmar, and DC comics characters are likely to find the limited edition Catwoman ornament to be absolutely indispensable. This is a great tribute to the great Julie Newmar and a wonderful celebration of the camp classic version of Batman!

This is an ornament I proudly sell in my online store. For the current inventory, please check out my 2016 Catwoman Ornaments For Sale!

For other DC Universe Hallmark ornaments, please check out my reviews of:
2016 Supergirl DC SuperHero Girls ornament
2016 Wonder Woman Batman V. Superman: Dawn Of Justice ornament
2016 Batmobile Batman V. Superman: Dawn Of Justice ornament
2015 The Joker Batman television series (Limited Edition)
2015 Lynda Carter As Wonder Woman
2014 Bane The Dark Knight Rises (Limited Edition)
2014 1989 Batmobile
2014 Defender Of Mankind Superman
2013 Man Of Steel
2013 The Joker The Dark Knight Rises
2013 Descending Upon Gotham City Batman ornament
2012 The Bat The Dark Knight Rises Limited Edition Ornament
2012 Catwoman ornament
2012 "Beware My Power" Green Lantern ornament
2012 The Dark Knight Rises
2011 Batman Takes Flight
2011 Green Lantern
2010 Limited Edition Harley Quinn
2009 Wonder Woman ornament

10/10

For other ornament reviews, please visit my Ornament Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Happy 2017! We Open Mellow With Bob Dylan's Shadows In The Night!

The Good: Great vocals, Interesting musical accompaniment
The Bad: SHORT, Somewhat monotonous overall sound
The Basics: Bob Dylan does intriguing interpretations of classic club songs made popular by Frank Sinatra, which allows him to highlight his vocal abilities without making a truly stellar collection.


Happy 2017! 2016 is over and I, for one, am happy to close the book on that year that was packed with political disillusionment and deaths of artists and celebrities both tragic and heartbreaking. Thinking about 2016 put me in something of a melancholy mood and to mull for a while, I pulled out Bob Dylan's Shadows In The Night for enjoyment and review.

Shadows In The Night is a 2015 cover album of Bob Dylan's whereby the artist reinterpreted classic songs made famous by Frank Sinatra (Sinatra himself was only involved with co-writing one of the songs). Perhaps Shadows In The Night was a mistake; it is a very melancholy album, which is great for wallowing, but not so wonderful for getting out of one's introspective mood! It is worth noting up front that I am not overly familiar with the works of Frank Sinatra; I know who he was, but it was a few tracks into Shadows In The Night before I realized that I could probably not pick out a Frank Sinatra performance from a line-up of crooners. As such, this review of Shadows In The Night is very much on Bob Dylan's work, with no real comparative analysis to how the tracks contrast with Frank Sinatra's performances of the same songs.

With only ten songs, clocking out at 35:17, the biggest strike against Shadows In The Night is that it is short. The duration of the album reminds me of just how disappointed I have been over the long-term with the career of Sophie B. Hawkins; I have a radio interview with Hawkins where she discusses how she got signed to a label. In the interview, Hawkins references winnowing down her songbook from hundreds of songs to about the dozen best in order to record her demo tape and first album. With hundreds of songs before she released her debut, it is depressing to consider that Hawkins has only produced five albums. The point here being, there is a vast amount of material that remains unheard and Shadows In The Night could have been twice as long and utilized the c.d. medium better and presented Dylan's full attempt at covering Frank Sinatra, as opposed to this "highlights album."

Shadows In The Night has Bob Dylan presenting the vocals and producing the album, but otherwise generating very little for the album. Dylan is not credited with playing any instruments and he did not write any of the songs on Shadows In The Night (which makes sense for a cover album). Shadows In The Night has Dylan as performer, not artists . . . save that he reinterpreted the classic Sinatra-performed songs.

Unfortunately, for however original Dylan's takes on Sinatra's songs might be, Shadows In The Night is very musically uninteresting. Dylan is accompanied by the trumpet, pedal steel, and other (minimal) instrumentation, mostly brass. The songs are homogeneously slow and contemplative in their music. Shadows In The Night is moody and immersive, but track to track there is little differentiation. The album does an excellent job of sinking the listener into a morass of smoky depression and melancholy, but it does not change it up. One suspects that if the album were put on a loop, most listeners would listen to it on repeat forever without noticing where the album begins or ends, in one indistinct, depressive, loop.

That is not to say that Shadows In The Night is not good; it is. The highlight of Shadows In The Night are the vocals of Bob Dylan. Dylan performs each track with clear vocals, holding notes and articulating each word with clear passion and precision. The only song I knew coming into Shadows In The Night was "Some Enchanted Evening" and Dylan sings every line clearly and well, eliminating the stereotype that Dylan is a better writer than he is a vocalist. Dylan does not fundamentally change the lines or even the tempo, but he strips the songs back so they are vocally-dominated and his mood carries into every word. Every song on Shadows In The Night features Bob Dylan passionately and clearly singing in a way that perfectly conveys the sadness of the words he sings.

There are few artists who could get away with a moody cover album that is somewhat thematically and musically monotonous, but Dylan manages to pull it off with Shadows In The Night. Shadows In The Night is a sad little album that reminds viewers that Bob Dylan can sing, but allows listeners to enjoy that without having to pay so much attention to the lyrics and get into an activist mode from them.

The best track is "Stay With Me," there is no truly weak song, though none of the other songs really stand out.

For other Bob Dylan reviews, be sure to check out my takes on:
The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan
The Times They Are A-Changin’
Another Side Of Bob Dylan
Early Album Boxed Set
Blonde On Blonde
Blood On The Tracks
No Direction Home
Biograph
Love And Theft
Modern Times

6/10

For other music reviews, please check out my Music Review Index Page for a comprehensive, organized listing of all the music reviews I have written!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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