"Lots of Girls Gonna Get Hurt" is a short EP and break filler before the release of the emotionally stunning and musically diversified main release "Redefining Darkness" where Shining covers three bands from Sweden and one band from Finland. The interesting thing is that this short release presents us Shining in a new light as the controversial Swedish band chose to cover more or less popular tracks from bands that rather belong to the alternative or folk rock genre than to the metal scene. The tracks still have a very slightly dark, eerie and melancholic touch but it all feels like an uninspired light version of the main band. This touch is not due to a rework of the band but because the originals already sound this way.

Instead of adapting the four tracks to the harsher and progressive sounds of the band, Shining chose to perform four songs that are quite close and almost similar to the original songs. The instruments are more laid back while the vocals are clean and very melodic throughout the entire release. This proves that the band has multiple influences and has no boundaries for their inspirations which is a quite positive sign. The enchanting clean vocals prove that Niklas Kvarforth is one of the most variable extreme metal performers around and he does a very decent job on here. I must even admit that his versatile vocals are often better than the vocal performances by the singers of the original bands but apart of this, there isn't much of a difference.

The tracks simply don't vary much from the original performances and all sound rather similar. This short record lacks of astonishing passages or outstanding moments. The four songs are definitely not bad but can't be called quite spectacular either. The special certain something Shining stands for is completely absent on this release that lacks of extreme contrasts, profound emotions and progressive breaks. This experimental EP is a little bit too relaxed and unspectacular to be bought by anyone outside of the faithful Shining fan basis and has nothing to do with what this band has done prior to and after this release. It can be described as a little experiment and an attempt to break out of the usual structures but it lacks of profound inspiration and true motivation. In the end, this just feels like an odd mixture of a few relaxed jam sessions and some sort of an identity crisis as these four tracks go straight nowhere. Every band needs to break free from time to time and try out something new but they should have done this for themselves in their basements instead of professionally releasing this kind of average material to a rather confused fan basis. On the other side, the band likes to provoke by chosing a disturbing title for this EP for example but this time there was really just much ado about nothing.

"L'affaire Dumont" is a French Canadian drama movie that is inspired by true events where a poor and shy guy gets accused for a rape he doesn't seem to have committed.

The movie completely focuses on the portrait of the desperate suburbs and their inhabitants during the nineties and in particular the life of the main character who goes through hell and heaven and back again. He had a very tough childhood with an brutal and abusive father and an ignorant mother, has no permanent job and struggles to have enough money to live a comfortable life, lives a very difficult separation from his ignorant ex-wife and his beloved children that are not very well treated by their mother's new boyfriend, gets to know that those who seemed to be his friends don't do anything to get him out of trouble, faces a corrupt trial of justice and many issues with his untalented lawyer and goes through a rough time in prison including abuse and hatred committed against him. During all this time, he claims to be innocent and finds one person days before the start of his prison sentence that will never stop fighting for him and becomes the love of his life. Their relation grows and the never give up the idea of a brighter future.

The movie completely puts aside any action scenes, special effects or spectacular moments. The flick concentrates on the excellent actors incarnating very profound and credible characters. The movie is filled with cold images thanks to a few light effects and inflexible camera angles which add a desperate atmosphere to the already quite uneasy story. The film includes a big load of dialogues but sometimes they take some time to pull off and are interrupted by moments of uneasy silence, little emotional breakouts or hesitating stuttering. These lengths are a wanted effect by the production team as they add even more authenticity to the film that almost feels like a documentary where we witness real life people and not simple actors. This is a big prove for the excellent acting.

This kind of movie might not be a highlight for everybody but anybody who adores slow paced dramas with authentic characters and true emotions should try anything to watch this movie. I'm usually not all too much into this kind of movies but the gripping story and the outstanding acting really touched me. It's because this movie is different from popular flicks that it really stands out as one of the very best films I have seen so far this year. If I had to chose a candidate for the foreign language category of the next Academy Awards, I would without a doubt pick this little gem from Quebec, the province where the best Canadian movies happen to be done for quite a while now. If you get the chance to watch it, take it and pick it up.

I've been a big fan of the very first "Resident Evil" movie because it had a unique horror film atmosphere, a twisted story and many intriguing characters. When I saw the second film, I was completely disappointed because it only focused on action scenes and had a very depressing and dumb atmosphere all the time. I disliked the film so much that I stopped caring for the sequels. In addition to this, the fascination of the initial concept has just worn out after numerous comics, novels, video games and movies. I feel that only the closed minded die hard fans will continue buying all this stuff and ignoring the lack of quality that has been replaced by an elevated quantity. As it seems, there are still enough of this people around to carry the whole concept on.

I only watched this movie by pure coincidence as I passed a weekend with a friend who is a fan of the series and who asked me to go to watch this flick at his cheap local movie theatre with him. This new flick didn't inspire me at all to watch the flicks I've had missed or to continue following the series. It just underlines what I've already expected. The movie is filled with numerous action scenes, cheap effects and ultimately leads to another sequel while the characters have no development and while there is also a complete absence of any story whatsoever.

There are still a few good points about this film. First of all, the location of a complex Soviet bunker system somewhere underneath the permafrost of North-East Russia is quite promising and definitely has its charm even if the idea had been used before. The decorations are overall quite stylish and a few shots are in fact very well done. Apart of this, I also enjoyed the simulated places the characters cross in this movie such as Tokyo, New York City or Moscow. These scenes are especially intriguing for people who adore to travel and discover the world as I do and at some moments, there are certain deja-vu effects. As a last point, I might say that I liked the addition of Li Bingbing to the movie. I have seen several Chinese flicks with her before she rose to fame and she definitely is a promising actress. It's sad that she is not acting very much in here in fact just like all the other characters that have no development. She's just there all of a sudden, incarnates a tough woman and shows us her long beautiful legs. That's definitely nice to watch but she has clearly more than just this to offer and the team wasted a lot of promising potential.

In the end, this movie seems to be another continuous step down for the Resident Evil universe. There will be more movies but I hope it will stop anytime soon. While the makers of the comparable Underworld saga were able to pull of a quite decent new flick this year, the team behind Resident Evil fails while it tries. Let's hope for an explosive final chapter before the whole thing will finally be brought to an end. I can only recommend this movie to the die hard fans, anyone else should skip this, watch the first and best feature again and discover more movies with Li Bingbing.