Gossip
A Joyful Noise
5/5

I'm guessing the days of Gossip sounding like a straight up grimy punk band are over. Their last album was disco infused rock, and i wondered whether it was a one off change of direction. Now with the release of A Joyful Noise, i think Gossip has finally found it's signature niche with another collection of danceable rock infused songs that you can either bang out on a guitar to or dance your ass off under a mirror ball.

Beth Ditto's solo dance EP that was released in 2011 has had a strong influence on the bands new album, with even more disco inspired beats sharing the stage with thrashing rock band production thanks to UK album producer, Xenomania.
You'll find specks of their previous album, Music For Men, throughout the new record. The track, Get A Job, could have easily been been part of their previous albums track listing. A Joyful Noise feels very much like a continuation of their last album, while still taking the production a little bit further.
Some of the melodies feel very old skool, they feature the types of hooks you'd hear in tracks from the late 70's/ early 80s, songs like Perfect World and Casualties of War showcase how much listening to ABBA over the last couple years has rubbed off on Beth, and the band has never gone more 70's disco than they have on stompers like Get Lost and Love In A Foreign Place.

On first listen, the album may take a few plays to sink in, but once it does, it quickly starts to come together. A Joyful Noise isn't as instant or obviously hit filled as their last album, but it's probably overall slightly more cohesive, for me anyway. Personally, there were a couple of songs on Music For Men that i never warmed up to, A Joyful Noise however doesn't have one track that i haven't grown to enjoy, so for that, i'm labeling this as their easiest album to fall in love with. Not sure if it's necessarily their best, but it could grow to become that over time.

Best Movie Strippers!
Pull out your dollar notes! it's time to pay your pussy bill!

Jessica Alba as Nancy Callahan in "Sin City"
You won't get to see her in colour, or fully nude [Alba didn't want to go topless like her character in the comic book], however, she does do a nice little bar dance for us, topped off with a rope and wind machine.

 Demi Moore as Erin Grant in "Striptease"
The Motherly hairdo doesn't do a lot for her sex appeal, but Demi has a bangin' body and actually does some great dancing. She showcases her new silicone chesticles as well!.

 Jennifer Beals as Alex Owens in "Flashdance"
Welder by day, club dancer by night! Alex doesn't dance at a regular strip club though, this is a "clothes on" type of job! Still, she removes most of her clothes, and even though it's obviously NOT Beals doing the dancing, she's still sexy when they do her facial zoom ins. J.Lo loves it!

 Natalie Portman as Alice in "Closer"
We only see a small glimpse of Alice dancing, she's more of a talker, and what a talker she is!.






 

 Elizabeth Berkley as Nomi Malone in "Showgirls"
Nomi Malone doesn't like to be called a stripper! she's a dancer!!!!! even though she gets the most naked out of EVERYONE on this list. She shows it all, top bottom, front, back, it's all there on show, so are the high kicks, pole twirls, lesbian strip teases, flailing arms in the air dance moves and painted nipples.

 Daryl Hannah as Angel in "Dancing at the Blue Iguana"
 Angel isn't the sharpest tool in the shed, she'll mistake someone elses pregnancy test as her own even though she hasn't had sex in months, she'll put a photo of Adam West in her house and pretend it's her Father and expect nobody to notice, but she's still very sweet!. There's other assorted strippers in this one too, Jennifer Tilly as a dominatrix, Sandra Oh as a dancing poet, lovely.

 Rose McGowen as Cherry Darling in "Planet Terror"
She does a sexy dance for us during the opening credits, but the rest of the film is Cherry trying to comes to terms with having her leg ripped off while a zombie apocalypse is going down. Her solution? substitute a leg with a machine gun and shoot the crap out of everything! fantastic!.

 Holli Would in "Cool World"
Jessica Rabbit may be considered the sexiest cartoon ever, but Holli is the dirtiest! [and imo hotter than Jessica]. If she isn't dancing her ass off at her local club, than she's having cartoon sex with Gabriel Byrne. She was voiced by Kim Basinger.

 Salma Hayek as Santanico Pandemonium in "From Dusk Till Dawn"
Sadly, Salma doesn't take it all off in this role, but it's not needed really. She exudes enough sex to melt your TV during her snake dance number, you might want to enjoy it while it lasts though, because soon after its finished, she turns a bit.....ugly.

 Pamela Anderson as Barb Wire in "Barb Wire"
It's Pamela Anderson, so naturally she goes all out with her opening credits dance, tight dress, swinging from the ceiling, water spraying all over her, Pammy knows how to do it all!

 The Avengers
Starring: Robert Downey Jnr, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johannson
Directed by: Joss Whedon
4/5

Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D. brings together a team of super humans to form The Avengers to help save the Earth from an intergalactic army.

As a film, The Avengers had the potential to become a huge mess if not approached in the right way. You have a big cast all vying for the same amount of screen time, characters who are from different stories needing to come together to create one believable world, and a scope that's so big that it seems almost impossible to write a story with enough character development to make it more than just a pointless action film.
The best man to go to for this sort of job is, Joss Whedon. The majority of his past work has focused on vast stories and ensemble casts, Buffy, Firefly, Toy Story, Cabin in the Woods ect. so it's no surprise that he was able to take something as varied as Avengers and make it work, it's perfectly suited to his style of directing and writing.
It's almost amazing how easily everything flows throughout Avengers, from the introduction to the cast, to the ease of the unfolding story. Joss gets a huge thumbs up for making such a daunting project look so easy.

The Avengers strongest point is it's script, which has been injected with Joss's signature sense of humor, giving the story some hilarious laugh out loud moments, while still keeping the action coming in my the bucket loads. Joss's ability to toggle drama, comedy and action has always been his strongest asset, and it gives The Avengers some much needed personality.
Speaking of action, there's A LOT of it to get through, and all of it is fantastic from start to finish. Nothing will prepare you for the eye melting scope of the last 30 minute battle of the film. It's almost as if the creators thought they may never have a chance for a sequel, so they wanted to go out with the biggest bang they could possibly bang out. Everything is thrown at us during that section of the film, i almost felt tired by the time it was over, it was an impressive spectacle.

Casting wise, everyone is on point and no one gets left behind. They all get gags, all get big action set pieces and all get enough screen time. All of the actors did a great job, with the highlights being Downey Jnr as Iron Man, Hiddleston as Loki and Ruffalo as Hulk.

You don't need to have seen the films these characters come from to have a full understanding of what's going on within the story, however, it does help you understand a few small references here and there if you have seen them. An instant appreciation for some of the characters due to back story knowledge from other films does make it all feel a bit more well rounded, although as i said, it's not essential.

The Avengers is an unapologetic comic film from top to bottom, which makes it stand out amongst other darker and more realistic films coming out this year like The Dark Knight Rises and Spider Man. It's colourful, entertaining and very hard to not like. It took a lot of balls to take it down the route Joss did, this style of more "cartoony" comic book films has produced some very average results over the past few years, but Joss was able to nail with smarts and lots of heart.