Contrary to how it may appear, I do not have a prejudice against movies with the word "brothers" in the title. I never intended to review Four Brothers - the press screening was held at a theater I avoid and I didn't feel like spending $8 of my own ...
Time to really ramble today…"Blog" is an ugly word. It sounds like something that comes out of the nose when a person is sick with the flu. As I'm sure nearly everyone reading this knows, "blog" is short for "web log." (I prefer the term "online ...
Three of the movies I saw on planes during my marathon 44-hours in the air during the last week of May have now reached U.S. theaters. One of the benefits of flying Singapore Air is that each passenger has his/her own personal entertainment center, ...
Tonight and tomorrow night, at 9 pm, The National Geographic Channel is presenting the two-part, four-hour documentary, Inside 9/11. Sticking to the facts and using available private & public footage, this is said to be the most comprehensive look ...
When one considers the names of "progressive" U.S. cities, New York probably isn't at the top of the list (despite its status as the largest and best known locale in the country). San Francisco, in all likelihood. Seattle and New Orleans too. ...
Every once in a while, I am asked why I don't conduct interviews. This has not always been my policy - it has developed over the course of my 14 years as a film reviewer/critic. There was a time when I participated in interviews - those who browse ...
This past week, Robert Iger became the latest voice to join a growing chorus advocating a major overhaul of the current movie distribution system. With DVD sales outstripping ticket sales, the time has come to stop thinking of home video as a "...
Time for another MPAA-related rant. Maybe I should dedicate one day a week to an anti-MPAA ReelThought.Last week, I saw Broken Flowers, the lastest Jim Jarmusch film. The MPAA has given it a justifiable R-rating. That's not what this column is ...
There is a commonly believed myth that film critics should go into a movie screening with no expectations. After all, expectations damage objectivity. The reality, however, is that there is no such thing as an "objective review," and any critic ...
It's unbelievable how upset some people can be made by a simple statement. In the midst of my Bay-bashing yesterday, I snuck in the following two sentences: "Adam Sandler's appeal is on the wane - witness the performance of The Longest Yard. (Since ...
So Michael Bay's The Island is a box office disaster of Heaven's Gate proportions. Even with overseas sales and DVD proceeds figured in, this movie looks set to lose a ton of money. In the normal course of things, this wouldn't be a big deal for ...
Normally, I'm not a conspiracy theorist. In fact, I'm a card-carrying unbeliever. While I don't accept that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, I don't subscribe to the theory that Lyndon Johnson was behind the assassination. I'm not a "UFO person" (...
For those who read The Price of the Crown, welcome back to the land of Devforth. For those who haven't, I would encourage reading the first book, but it isn't a necessity. The Price of Magic is intended to be a stand-alone, although there are ...
Now to an episode-by-episode overview of the new "Doctor Who." As I see it, the 13-epidode season is divided into two sections: the setup (episodes 1-7) and the payoff (episodes 8-13). Most of the bad stuff and the least successful stories comes ...
The BBC Science Fiction TV series "Doctor Who" first came to the United States in 1978, fifteen years after its debut in the U.K. (There were isolated instances of the program being shown pre-'78, but that was the year when Time-Life purchased four ...
Generally speaking, I am amused by hate mail. Sometimes, it's banal - along the lines of: "You suck. You wouldnt know a good movie if it bit you on the ass." (Real e-mail from a couple of days ago.) Those are boring and are punished for their lack...
Now that seemingly every third motion picture is a sequel, the question has to be asked: How does a subsequent installment of a movie series impact the viewer's impressions of what has gone before? It's a tricky question, and not one that many movie-...