Keep on rockin' in the free world

The first round of acts for the 2009 Big Day Out were announced today, and it's the worst lineup I've ever seen.

The "headliner" is Neil Young. I actually don't mind a bit of Neil, every decade he seems to write one or two good songs. Would I want to go see him in concert though? No I wouldn't.


Headlining the boiler room is the Prodigy. If this were 1997 it would probably be big news, but I'm pretty sure noone cares about them anymore. I have their CD Fat of the Land up on ebay at the moment, and despite the fact that it features their biggest hits "Firestarter" and "Smack My Bitch Up", it hasn't got a single bid on it yet.

Also in the lineup are The Living End (who I don't care for personally, but I recognise they've got a decent size audience), Arctic Monkeys (who I've only heard once but thought were a poor-man's Strokes) and Sneaky Sound System.

I don't really enjoy the Big Day Out at the best of times - the combination of hot weather, drunk and stoned kids, and bad sound isn't a recipe for success. But sometimes I feel like I don't really have a choice - like last year, when a reformed Rage Against the Machine played. After years of hoping they'd someday get back together, I wasn't going to pass up seeing them because the situation wasn't ideal.

This year I'm not even remotely tempted to go though. I'm wondering what the turnout will be like - if it's anywhere close to years passed it will confirm my suspicions that the majority of people who go couldn't really care less about music, they just go because it's the thing to do.

More discrimination

So this Thursday we have our "team building" day for work. In what was a very poorly kept secret, we were meant to be going quad-bike riding down on the Fleurieu Peninsula. However, the owner of the business realised after taking our booking that there wouldn't be enough time for our entire group to ride, so he cancelled it.

Now we're looking at going Go Kart racing, another past time which discriminates against solidly built fellows like myself. Since all the cars have the same engine, which isn't that powerful to begin with, the lightest drivers always come out ahead.


The last (and only) time I went was for Ash's bucks night. I can clearly remember the feeling of utter helplessness as I floored the accelerator while watching all his skinny Greek friends fly past me.

I was teamed up with Con Pappas, and we were meant to switch every 20 laps, although he forgot and did like the last 60 on his own. At the time I was kind of pissed, but looking back it was probably for the best, otherwise I would have still been going round that damn track with everyone else done and ready to leave.

I'm hoping that maybe this is all a trick, pretending like we're not going quad bike riding because everyone found out that we were, then surprising us all at the last minute. I don't think our management is that devious though.

Sunday 28 September 2008

Got up this morning and after 28 years or so decided to give another church a go, and went to Edwardstown Baptist (where Ash and Kerry and their respective spouses now attend). It was quite a good experience, the people seemed nice, and the message was good. Plus it's just down South Road, so convenient to my new location in the inner South West of Adelaide.

After church Ash and Ange had all of us over for a delicious meal of chicken and chips. When Natalia started crying Paul and Kerry left, and Ash and I got down to some PS3. I beat him twice in NBA 2K8, but he kicked my butt badly in Gran Turismo, even giving me my choice of car and driving lower end model himself he destroyed me. Maybe driving's not really my thing.

After lunch I drove down to Marion to buy a new CD player for my car. Mine broke around three years ago, and I never got round to replacing it. I had no idea what to look for other than a detachable face and ipod input, so I just went with the one that was marked down the most. Got a $170 Kenwood one for $89, and even arranged to get it installed next weekend.

When I was younger, stealing car stereos was a popular thing to do. I think I had mine stolen twice, and at least one of those times it was just a tape deck. I hope everyone has moved past that phase, because I don't really want to be cleaning broken glass off my front seat anytime soon.

More Damien Rice brilliance

An audience made recording of an unreleased song, and it still sends chills down my spine. I have absolutely no idea why Coldplay sell out stadiums and he remains widely unknown . . .

If you don't like this . . .

Then you don't like music.

A brief history of the twenty-first century

A short excerpt from Chuck Klosterman's new essay that I liked:

October 2, 2051
In the new age of global remoteness, military strategy becomes murky. Conventional wisdom suggests Australia is the most important region, as it can only be invaded via Indonesia. Others point to South America, since it is vulnerable only to Central American freedom fighters or North African warlords. Everyone agrees that Europe is a waste of time.

Discrimination

I hate discrimination, of all kinds. Especially when I'm the one who is being discriminated against.

Some of you may know it has long been a dream of mine to go skydiving. Not a dream in the sense that I spend most of my waking hours working towards this occurence, more a "If the opportunity ever presents itself, I think I'd like to do it" kind of thing.


Anyway, one of my friends has decided she's going to go on her birthday this year, and has told me I can tag along if I want. She also mentioned that there would probably be some sort of discount involved if we book together through the Entertainment Book, which goes a long way towards explaining why she's happy for me to crash her birthday celebrations.

So we look up the details on their website, and sure enough, there's a discount offered, but there's also a surcharge for people "over 90kg".

Now I know what you're thinking, but in fact it's true, I am over 90kg. Somewhere around the century mark actually. And I'll concede that yes, I am a little overweight. But why do they have to rub my face in it by charging me more? Do they need to bring an extra parachute for my fat ass? Is it danger money for the poor instructor who has to accompany me to the ground?

Besides, if you ask me, 90kg isn't even really that heavy for a fully grown adult male.

I think I might look around to see if this type of discrimination is industry standard. If it is, I guess I'm just going to have to hit the treadmill.

Bands I want to see live part two

Placebo . . .

Double Jeopardy

ebay update

So, over the last week I've sold 50 items on ebay, bringing in a little more than $400 cash money. I'm about halfway to my target, ie having enough money to buy one of these . . .

It's actually quite an enjoyable process. Putting stuff up isn't a whole lot of fun, but watching the final minutes as the price starts to climb is a strangely hypnotic experience. And it's great sitting at work and getting emails periodically that say "so and so has just sent you $20 though paypal".

I've found that especially on the cheaper items, you make most of your money out of overcharging for shipping. And there's an added bonus, as ebay charges you a fee based on a percentage the selling price, which is exclusive of your shipping costs. The most annoying thing is people who want to come and pick up their purchases. Especially when they have bought a DVD for $1, and want to drive to your house to get it. I think I'm going to specify no pickups from now on. It kind of reminds me of what I hate about garage sales . . . by and large, you don't want to be dealing with the type of people who haggle over a dollar or two.

I'm too old for this . . .

For the third week in a row I joined Ash's Tuesday basketball pick-up game last night. I thought I was getting used to it, but my body is telling me otherwise today.

It was a pretty good series of games though, and I felt like I won more than I lost. Thankfully the numbers were down a bit, we had 15 last week, which led to games of 5 on 5 on 5, with one team always waiting in defense (so no fast breaks). With a rotating group of 8-10 players last night though we were able to play proper full court games (even though the full court is maybe 2/3 the size of a regular court), which was much better. Especially during the final game where I teamed up with the best point guard there (only known as "Foetus", possibly because of his resemblance to Mike Dunleavy), and got to actually run the break, rather than just jack up long threes.


Quick aside - after reading Basketbawful's "Hacker's Rules" here, one guy stood out last night as perfectly fitting this mould - the gangly, awkward kid, who couldn't shoot, pass, dribble or play defense, but kept saying stuff like "Wow, my fitness has really dropped off in the last week." Right, that's the reason you can't play . . .

We finished a bit after 12, but by the time I got home, and had a shower, it was approaching 1am. I was feeling dehydrated, so I had several glasses of water. I think I fell asleep just after 2am, but because of the water drinking binge, I ended up getting up several times during the night to go to the bathroom. So, not feeling so crash hot today, and wondering if maybe I am getting a little too old for this type of thing.

What Darren's watching

Last week I got season five of Entourage off Amazon, and I've flown through it. Perhaps it says more about my social life than the show itself, but the thing I love about Entourage is what a lot of people hate - it's lightweight entertainment that doesn't ask for a lot from you.

The last series I watched before this was the final season of The Wire. Absolutely brilliant television, but man does it take a lot out of you. Thankfully there wasn't an ambiguous, Sopranos-esque ending, but in some ways it would have been better. Watching the endings for some of the characters was heartbreaking, especially after you've followed them for years.

Anyway, there's not a lot of this in Entourage. If The Wire is about the consequences of actions - both by individuals and institutions - Entourage is about the complete absence of consequences. Vince and his posse run out of money? No problem, through some crazy turn of events, he'll get a multi-million dollar job offer the next episode.

Season five does show the guys struggling a little bit, with Vince's vanity project Medellin struggling to find a buyer, and everyone crashing at Johnny's new apartment. You never really get the feel that it's permanent though, it's just a small speedhump on their way to an even more lavish lifestyle.


What I did like about season five was there was a lot of Billy Walsh, probably the best character on the show outside of Ari. For some reason he always reminded me of my friend Boris Djuric. Anyway, his constant verbal battles with both E and Ari are a definite highlight of the show. The writing seems to be a little below the standard of the first two seasons, there's not quite as many classic Ari lines in each episode, but there's still enough to make it laugh out loud funny every now and then.

Bands I want to see live part one

The Gutter Twins . . .

Ultimate fantasy

Or not. . . Even though our fantasy basketball draft is still a month out, we set the order for it today. I did it via a nice little website which you feed your team manager email addresses into, and it randomly assigns an order, and emails everyone their spot. As it's all automated, there was no way for me to cheat. Which is kind of a shame, because for the second year in a row I got a really crappy pick. It was much better in the days when Ash and I used to rig it each year.*

As soon as I saw the draft order email I felt like I'd been punched in the stomach. Number nine. In a ten team league. In that split instant, all my dreams of watching Chris Paul rack up the assists, Kobe scoring 30 plus a night, and Lebron flirting with a triple double every game were dashed.

Instead, I'm left talking myself into certain best-case scenarios, like "Sure (player x) has a history of injuries, but he was fine last year, perhaps he can do it again". Or "Maybe he's been practicing free throws this off-season, instead of knocking up team dancers".


Nevertheless, I'm slowly coming around. I'm definitely at the acceptance stage in the cycle of grief. I've come up with a few ideas, which I won't share here, since 75% of you guys are in my league. Let's just say as long as no more blue-chip players get injured in the next month, I think I'll be OK.

* Just a joke Mike. I can sense your blood pressure rising ten thousand kilometres away.

What Darren's reading

If I had to list the five greatest books of all time, four would be written by Chuck Klosterman.

There's his brilliant debut "Fargo Rock City", which is both a biography of his teenage years in North Dakota, and a history of eighties metal. There's "Sex, Drug, and Cocoa Puffs", the collection of pop-culture essays for which he's probably best known. You've got "Killing Yourself To Live", which people either love or hate, which is kind of about a cross-country trip visiting sites where rock stars died, but is really about understanding love and death through music. And finally, there's Chuck Klosterman IV, which is just a collection of his previous writings plus a new short story. It's probably the worst thing he's released, although I'm sure he'd recognise that, I think it was mainly just a means of allowing his readers access to some of his earlier work.


I got the new Chuck Klosterman book "Downtown Owl" in the mail yesterday. Following on from the short story in his last book, the new one is entirely fiction. But after reading the first two chapters on the bus this morning, it's obvious that he's again taken parts of his own experience, specifically the knowledge of what it's like growing up in a small semi-rural American community, and written about that.

I haven't read a whole heap in recent years, but I can't wait to get through this one. Detailed review to come soon . . .

City to Bay

My long distance (well kind-of) running career spanned about eight months - from last year's City to Bay in September to the half marathon I ran in May this year. This second run left me unable to walk properly for about a week, and I vowed I would never willingly run such a distance again.

So I never really considered doing the City to Bay this year. But reading about it in the paper today, I kind of wish I did.

Not for the fitness benefits, or the sense of accomplishment, but because it featured celebrities from my favourite reality show, "The Biggest Loser".

Apparently Cosi (my favourite from last season) ran the whole way, which you'd expect, seeing as he looks pretty fit these days. As did JJ, the annoying truckie from Adelaide. Shannan, the trainer with a heart of gold, also ran it, and in a respectable 48 minutes (although some 18 year old guy who's still in high school did it in 34 minutes, so . . . ).

Some of the contestants didn't fare so well though. Gary (the big fella who was going bald), Nicola (the super-sized Meadow Soprano) and Carrie-Anne (one half of the annoying twin combo) all opted for the 6km route. Which they WALKED. I would expect that from their pre-Biggest Loser selves, but if you've been through the show, and lost all of that weight, you can at least run 6km, if not 12km.

I don't think any of them live in Adelaide, which makes it even worse - they booked tickets, accommodation etc just so they could come to our city for the weekend and walk a measly 6km. What an incredible waste of everyone's time.

I enjoyed this . . .

Even if Michael Stipe does spend the first minute talking nonsense.

Ebay

One thing that's become clear to me lately is that I have too much crap. Way too much. Even though I got rid of a whole bunch of stuff when I moved a few months ago, my house is still full of piles of CDs and records I won't re-listen to, DVDs I won't rewatch, and books I won't re-read.

So I decided to throw a whole lot of stuff up on ebay this week. Being my first time I've done this on this level, I think I made a few mistakes. To start off with, I listed some stuff too cheap - 99c is a good starting price for something that there will be a lot of demand on because the bidding will drive the price up. A lot of the stuff only one or two people were interested in though, so DVDs ended up selling for like $1.04.

It's interesting what some stuff goes for though. My previously viewed copy of "The Game" with Michael Douglas and Sean Penn sold for $10.50. Or about ten times the price of some of my other movies.

I took a guess regarding the postage costs. Hopefully I don't find out tomorrow that it's way more than I thought, and I'm actually going to lose money on this little venture.

I'm going to keep going though, next up is a bunch of CDs and perhaps some books. The idea is if I sell enough stuff eventually I'll have enough in my Paypal account to buy something good myself, perhaps a new guitar or something like that. Which I'll probably end up auctioning on ebay again in a few years, as the cycle continues . . .

Best album covers ever

Tropic Thunder

After few false starts, last night I saw "Tropic Thunder" with Mirjana at Norwood.

We got there a bit early, so after getting our tickets, popped into Cafe Primo for a bite to eat.

I'm not really a Cafe Primo fan. A while back you'd put up with the annoying ads and average food because at least it was cheap. Now they've put their prices up which is annoying. Because as far as I can tell they haven't improved quality or service anywhere. Anyway didn't really have a choice, since we only had 40 minutes, and they are usually quick at least. I get anxious when I'm waiting for my dinner with a movie start time quickly approaching.

I had what was basically a meatlovers pizza with chicken. It was a little dry. In hindsight, some pineapple would have helped. I also had a 600ml bottle of Coke Zero, which I think costs roughly the same as the 250ml glass bottles, which doesn't make much sense.

So onto the movie . . . it started with a few fake trailers for movies that the actors in the film were in. We then jump straight into the action, with Ben Stiller, Jack Black, and Robert Downey Jr all playing actors in a war movie that is "in it's fifth day of production and already a month behind schedule". Desperate to get his actors to embrace their roles, the director decides to dump them all in the middle of the jungle and stage the action around them, so they think they've actually stumbled into a war zone, and then capture it all on hidden cameras.


Of course, after dropping them off, the director steps on an actual land mine (which everyone apart from Downey Jr thinks is a set up), and the group are left on their own. They wander into an area used for heroin production, and Stiller is kidnapped by a local gang. Luckily they are fans of his movie "Simple Jack", a story about a retarded farmboy, and let him live, if he performs the movie live in its entireity each day. His castmates arrive to save him (despite the fact that their guns are just filled with blanks) and although Stiller isn't sure he wants to leave, they end up busting out together.

All in all, not a bad film. It had some flat points, although some good scenes, like the one where Robert Downey Jr explained to Ben that you never win an Oscar going "full retard" . . .

Check it out. Dustin Hoffman, 'Rain Man,' look retarded, act retarded, not retarded. Count toothpicks to your cards. Autistic, sure. Not retarded. You know Tom Hanks, 'Forrest Gump.' Slow, yes. Retarded, maybe. Braces on his legs. But he charmed the pants off Nixon and won a ping-pong competition. That ain't retarded. Peter Sellers, "Being There." Infantile, yes. Retarded, no. You went full retard, man. Never go full retard. You don't buy that? Ask Sean Penn, 2001, "I Am Sam." Remember? Went full retard, went home empty handed...

Tom Cruise was good as the overweight and balding studio head, but to be honest, I think I'd heard this hyped up to much, would have been better if it was a surprise.

All in all not a bad movie, not a classic but worth a look if you want something lighthearted.

Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace

All music is heavily shaped by the time and place in which it's created. "Appetite for Destruction" is a case in point. The first and best Guns n Roses album, it still sounds raw and honest. The "Use Your Illusion" albums? Not so much. The band were rich and famous by the early nineties, and the passion that fueled their debut was gone. Even if they wanted to create Appetite 2.0 they wouldn't have been able.

The Offspring are another example. In 1994 they released "Smash", their only album I've ever liked. Despite the fact that I'm not a huge fan of punk music, I'd rank it in my all-time top 10 albums. Lots of other people agreed, according to Wikipedia it's since sold 14 million copies worldwide. There's not really a bad song on the CD, and in parts, it's actually quite funny. I'm generally not a big fan of humour in music, but the comedy here is subtle, and based on everyday experiences that are easy to relate to. Like frustration bordering on road rage (Bad Habit), or manipulative girlfriends (Self Esteem).



On successive releases the band tried to mine the comedy vein further, but ended up with broader songs like (Pretty Fly) for a White Guy and Original Prankster. Which were popular in their time, but not widely loved anymore.

Even though Smash is still in reasonably high rotation on my ipod, I hadn't listened to a new Offspring album in years. I read a review of their new one "Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace" on the net a few weeks ago though, and was pulled in by promises of a harder sound than previous albums.

I downloaded it, and while it wasn't the hardcore punk album I'd heard it described as, it was an improvement on anything I'd heard from them since the mid-nineties. There's a few too many slow songs (I don't think anyone wants to hear an Offspring ballad) but the fast stuff is really good. It's as melodic as anything on Smash, but they don't get caught up in the novelty side of things.

Here's one of my favourites from the new disc, You're Gonna Go Far, Kid . . .

A pictorial interlude

Midnight basketball

Until last night, I hadn't played basketball in months. I was kind of missing it though, so joined Ash and his friends for their 10pm-midnight Tuesday night run at their church court.

I'd played in this game once before, but it always takes a while to get used to. The main thing is that the court is a bit smaller than usual - kind of like the one Will Smith played on in the episode of "Fresh Prince" where he joined the high school basketball team.



This affects the spacing (especially playing 5 on 5), cuts down on the fast breaks (even in a full court game there were only a few, and you needed to execute well to pull them off), and allows guys to shoot threes from close to half court.

I ended up with Ash during the first game, and I liked our chances. Unfortunately the other team had a guy called Tom, a fifty-something American dude, who was by far the best older player I've ever come up against. He spent most of that first game shooting threes from near halfcourt, and didn't miss a single one.

After a few rematches, we switched up the teams, and this time it was Ash, Tom and myself, plus another top player, plus the worst guy in the game. I really felt like this was going to be our chance, but we lost a steady stream of games by one or two points. It made little sense to Ash or I, we felt like we had better positions at three of the five positions (which was important since we were playing man on man) but we just couldn't seem to grab a win.

I started off really badly, missing all my outside shots, but after the first game or two started driving and grabbing boards, and ended up doing ok for myself around the rim. Didn't get to bed until about 12.30 or so, and then had a pretty rubbish night of sleep, so woke today feeling rather average. It was good to get out there and play in something close to a real game again though, I think I'll be a semi-regular from here on out.

A few links

I loved this article from Esquire, written by a soldier who served his time in Iraq, retired from the army, and received a letter from the Government a few years later telling him he needed to report for active duty in five weeks time.

It starts off in a less than serious fashion . . .

I had no idea that the Army was going to turn into this psychotic ex-girlfriend that you'd need to file a restraining order against because the crazy bitch doesn't get the hint that there's no way we're getting back together again--ever!

But as it progresses it takes on a tragic tone, as it becomes clear that he's suffering from post traumatic stress syndrome, and the Army couldn't care less.

I also enjoyed this Seth Rogen interview from GQ. I think he may be my favourite actor - since his first significant role in The 40 Year Old Virgin, he's done three movies - Knocked Up, Superbad, and Pineapple Express, which in my opnion ranged from good to great.

Finally, a website I've come across and enjoyed a lot is "What's Alan Watching", where Alan blogs about his TV viewing.

He only covers US shows, so fans of "Australian Idol" and "The Farmer Wants a Wife" will have to go elsewhere. But his writing on The Wire is fantastic, and provides some really good intelligent analysis of the series.

Free music

A couple of months ago I came across a blog called Antiquiet, which was hosting 9 leaked songs from the upcoming Guns n Roses album "Chinese Democracy". I ended up going back to this blog quite a bit - the music reviews are well written, and I've been turned onto a few new bands through it. Anyway, the GNR leak was minor news when it happened, but became even bigger a few weeks ago, when the FBI arrested the website's owner at gunpoint at his house at just before 7am, and charged him with copyright violation. The whole thing seems a bit over the top (even the Judge in the case questioned why they didn't just send him a summons for his court appearance) but I guess someone is trying to make a point about stealing music.

The thing is though, it's not a one way street. Sometimes bands steal from us too. The way I see it, Metallica owe me $20 that I wasted on their last album, "St Anger". More, if you consider the time I spent listening to it.

It was therefore with a very clear conscience that I downloaded their new CD, "Death Magnetic" last week (also, Lars is a wanker, which makes the decision even easier). I was curious to see how they recovered from the disaster that was St Anger. And it seems like what they've done is pretended that album never existed. In fact, the CD sounds like a return to their eighties sound, with little to do with the mid-tempo stuff they released last decade. There's 10 songs on a 74 minute CD, so they're back to epic seven and eight minute long songs; with some pretty frenetic drumming and guitar riffs. I read a review online where the author wondered how these forty-something musicians were going to pull this stuff off live night after night, and made a good point. It's funny, these guys have been around 25 years or so now, and this is probably as heavy as anything they've ever done, it's not something you'd really expect.

I'm not a huge Metallica fan, but I will listen to this when I want to hear something fast and heavy.

Another CD I came across in the last week was the new EP from The Gutter Twins, "Adorata". I found it at another music blog, Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers, which doesn't even bother to offer reviews or editorial - they just post links to downloads of full albums. Seems that's a policy that might land them in trouble one day.

I did feel a twinge of guilt downloading this though. Mainly because I think Mark Lanegan is a genius, and doesn't get the recognition he deserves. If I could give him the money for this directly (and have him look me in the eye and promise not to spend it on heroin) I would. Unfortunately I can't, and I know if I purchase it on itunes I'm mainly giving money to Apple, so I'm keeping my cash.

This EP is a follow up to their full-length album "Saturnalia" which came out earlier this year, and includes six covers and two new songs. I actually had no idea the thing was out until I came across it, which is weird these days, where usually I'll know about a release from my favourite artists weeks, or even months before it comes out. I've been listening to this quite a bit the last week, and an early favourite is their cover of Jose Gonazles' "Down the Line", as well as their original "Spanish Doors".

Finally, I've also been enjoying the new Verve album "Forth". A month or two before it came out I kind of rediscovered Richard Ashcroft's solo album "Alone with Everybody", and this is quite different, much more psychadelic and layered, but still really good.

Great article

A short interview/feature on Ricky Gervais I came across in Esquire this month . . .

http://www.esquire.com/features/the-screen/ricky-gervais-0908

Taken

If you like your movies to be plausible, you probably won't really like "Taken". If you're willing to completely suspend disbelief though, it's not too bad.

Liam Neeson plays a retired CIA guy who quit his job to spend more time with his 17 year old daughter, now semi-estranged from him, living with her mother and rich step-dad. Right from the start Liam seems to care just a little bit too much about his daughter - he gate crashes her 17th birthday party, takes a photo of them together, then goes directly to a drug store to get the photo developed and put in an album. Yeah a bit too full on if you ask me.

Anyway, she wants to go to Paris with a friend for a few months, and needs him to sign some paperwork because she's under 18. He doesn't want her to go, because he thinks it's too dangerous, but eventually agrees. Turns out he was right, she gets abducted the first night she's there, and he flies over to track her down before she disappears forever, and get revenge on the guys who took her.

After speaking to some CIA friends, he's told if he doesn't find her in the first 96 hours, he won't find her at all (and she'll be sold as a prostitute). So everything needs to go right for him, and it does, which is where the implausability comes in. He finds the young guy who helped abduct the girls within about an hour of arriving in Paris. He found his daughter's friend after bugging a random pimp, and overhearing him talk about a "construction site" (luckily he picked the right one). Other stretches include Liam outrunning an Audi, Liam defeating six or seven armed guys at once in hand to hand combat (this happens quite a bit), Liam recognising one of his daughter's captors by remembering his voice from a two word telephone conversation etc.

Anyway, somehow he manages to escape corrupt cops, and kill about a hundred gangsters and rescue his daughter, before escaping the country on a commercial flight.

It's shot well, although some of the fight scenes are shot really close up which makes them hard to follow. If you want a really good movie about revenge I'd recommend "Man On Fire" with Denzel, but this isn't too bad, as long as you don't expect too much.