Batson's Blog

Happiness for the heart. That’s what Kelly Clarkson’s collaboration with Vince Gill on "Don’t Rush" is. It’s kind of a jazzy-country little tune. It conjures up images of blue skies and sunshine while driving down a two-lane road, top down, mid-afternoon, without a care in the world. When I saw the track listing for Kelly Clarkson’s greatest hits album, I was skeptical at how a collaboration with Vince Gill would turn out. While other pop stars like Christina Aguilera and P!nk are doing collaborations with Cee Lo Green and Nate Russ , Clarkson continues to keep one foot (or at least a few toes) planted in the country genre. Much like her duet with Jason Aldean last year, this new collaboration was successful. Kelly Clarkson’s voice has become one of the most recognizable on the radio since she won American Idol a decade ago, but her versatility is truly underrated. She can sing any song from any era and make it damn good. Kelly’s performance alongside Vince a...

The Raven is a poor man’s Sherlock Holmes . Instead of being highly entertained, wishing there was a sequel, and considering buying a DVD copy of my own, I found myself grateful that I Redboxed this one. It wasn’t a ‘bad movie,’ but it was almost more disappointing than one because I was hoping for something good. If you break it down, all the elements were in place for what should have been an awesome movie. Set in Edgar Allen Poe's last days, The Raven is a murder mystery with interesting costuming and a few cool action sequences. In addition to that, Edgar Allen Poe is a historical character with a bit of a fan base already built in. John Cusack (who plays Edgar Allen Poe) was cast very well. In fact, I was really impressed with Cusack. I can't think of a better Poe. After seeing this film, I think he would have made a good Sherlock Holmes . He probably wouldn't have been as comedic as Robert Downey Jr. is as Sherlock, but I think Cusack would h...

So who is excited for the new Star Trek movie? It seems like it's been ages since the Star Trek brand was reworked on the big screen. Star Trek , starring Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto and Zoe Saldana, was released in 2009. I guess it will be about five years old by the time the sequel goes to theatres. The movie poster looks akin to The Dark Knight Rises, but doesn't really give many clues as to what will happen in the film. The new teaser trailer for Star Trek: Into Darkness that was just released gives us a little more information. I've always been more of a Star Wars fan, but the trailer looks cool. It seems J.J. Abrams is going all out with this new threat that the crew of the Enterprise will face. In the teaser, there's a shot of what appears to be the Enterprise, crashing down into the ocean. I'm not sure what other plots will be brought into the film, but it looks like the overall plot will be the threat of someone destroying Earth. The respo...

I’m behind the times on this one, but it was just a couple of weeks ago that I was listening to the radio and I had to do a double take. I heard a song that sounded eerily similar to the song that played on the trailer for Where The Wild Things Are . Logic told me this wasn’t possible. The song used in the trailer wasn’t one that got radio play when the movie was actually out in the theatres, so why would it be on the radio now? The song was called “Home.” Upon listening to it a few more times it doesn’t sound all that much like the Where The Wild Things Are them. It also doesn’t sound like anything else that is on the radio right now, so it was easy to take notice of. It turns out the song was by a guy named Phil Phillips . Thankfully the radio personality clued me in to who he was because I had no idea. He’s the latest winner of American Idol. I caught bits and pieces of the season that Scotty McCreery won, but I didn’t see any of last season. I guess "Ho...

They say not to judge a book by its cover. To that, I say: hogwash. Fair or not, if a book doesn’t have some interesting cover art, I usually pass on picking it up for a read. I gotta’ say, from my experience, it usually works. I recently learned the hard way, however, that the same can’t be said for DVD covers. While going through the $5 bin at Best Buy, I saw the Planet of the Apes (the Mark Wahlberg version). The cover art looks pretty epic. A few days and a Netflix DVD later, it was in my mailbox. My initial reaction was surprise. I was kind of surprised at how limited the special effects seemed. Since the movie was made in 2001, I was expecting more. Anything that’s post-2000, I kind of automatically assume it will have some realistic special effects. Then again, it’s a story that is about talking apes. I suppose no amount of special effects will make that look completely convincing. Still, based on the picture quality, it seemed like it was filmed in the 197...

Lotus is Christina Aguilera’s best album to date. Granted, I never listened to a complete Christina Aguilera album before. In fact, just about the only songs of hers I’ve heard in their entirety are the singles she’s had on the radio. The past few years that hasn’t been too many. Christina can sing. I’ll give her that. My problem with her has always been that she adds too many unneeded “aahhhs” in most of her performances. She always likes to showcase her vocal abilities by adding extra syllables in places where they don't belong. Sometimes simpler is better. She always rubbed me the wrong way too. Christina seemed conceited – someone you wouldn’t want to hang out with unless you absolutely had to. Kind of like those girls at school who thought they were too awesome to associate with anyone. On Lotus Christina seems more mature and more comfortable with herself. She seems less worried about everyone thinking she’s the best. As a result, all of her tracks have...

Disney announced a few weeks back, after buying Lucasfilm Ltd. from George Lucas , that there are plans to release new Star Wars movies and Indiana Jones films. The earliest could apparently come in the form of Star Wars VII in 2015. I’m sure hardcore fans will turn out for that film. I may even be one of them. However, I think it’s a bad call. Sometimes it’s best to just leave an untarnished legacy alone (well, mostly untarnished – let’s not forget Jar Jar Binks ). The film would need the original actors and an innovative new story line to truly live up to the original trilogy. Even with the original actors, what can be done? The actors themselves are all old. Is Harrison Ford really capable of providing an awesome action sequence with a light saber at his age? Does anyone want to see Carrie Fisher in a metal bikini anymore? Meanwhile, after Indiana Jones 4 atomic-ly bombed (who can forget that horrible refrigerator scene ?), they still feel a need to revisit that fr...