The first Monday in April is Baseball's Opening Day. Once upon a time (as in a fairy tale), this was a day of renewal and rejoicing, of green grass and warm breezes whispering promises of the summer to come. It was a day when every team was in ...
A couple of minor notes for today...First, to clear something up, the October 1 "ReelThought" was not intended to be a jab at Roger Ebert. It was a jab at Flightplan, which I believe to possess a plot that is too absurd for even the most blasé ...
I'll end this month by providing follow-ups to a few recent entries I have written that have generated significant e-mail volume. Starting tomorrow, it's time to turn the page on the calendar to December. That means a few columns about King Kong ...
From time-to-time, as I have previously mentioned, I am asked questions about why I choose not to see a particular movie. Typically, it's a combination of preference and opportunity. Sometimes I will see a movie I don't have high hopes for if it's ...
Perhaps making this declaration on April Fools' Day is not a good idea. After all, I have from time-to-time played pranks on my readers (including a fake review of a movie that didn't exist and a glowing review of a universally reviled title). In ...
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 ...
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. ...
The summer movie season unofficially begins during the first weekend of May. That means that 2005's first warm-weather blockbuster will be Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven. (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was due to open the same weekend, but...
Over roughly the last decade, Roger Ebert has been lobbying for an "A" rating somewhere in between the "R" and "NC-17" - an indicator to potential viewers that a film is adult in nature but not pornographic. (That would raise the question of what ...
On the Croatian version of the Alexander DVD: "remek-ejelo vrijedno divljenja" - James Berardinelli. I am reliably informed that this is translated to be: "A masterpiece worthy of admiration." It's funny, but I can't remember saying anything quite ...
Was that the date when you first saw Star Wars? For me, it wasn't. I'm fond of saying that I saw the film on "Opening Day," but "Opening Day" at the theater I attended was June 15 (the day Star Wars expanded to over 100 theaters). The official ...
When I was a kid, I couldn't imagine how people once lived without television. After all, I probably spent three hours a day sitting in front of our single color set, watching Julia Child and The Galloping Gourmet in the early afternoon, The Lone ...
I know where Peter Jackson is coming from, because I have walked down a similar road. Admittedly, King Kong hasn't become the lifelong obsession for me that it has been for him but, when it comes to love of a movie, King Kong was my first. And, as ...
It's always nice to have a helpful group of on-liners to show me the error of my ways. Such is the case when it comes to the poor, misunderstood group of Star Wars fans who are lining up in L.A., hoping to be among the first to file into the theater...
The theater industry had better figure out quickly what to put in all those multiplexes. Rather than aiming nasty comments at Robert Iger and Steven Soderbergh for "turning coat," they should examine reality. The numbers, both at the box office and...
You have to hand it to publicists (the smart ones, anyway): give them an opportunity, and they'll slurp it up... Recently, I was watching TV and an ad for a movie (I think it was Unleashed, but I'm not 100% sure) came on screen. Included among the ...
Just a few random thoughts about the book. If you're not interested, you can skip to tomorrow, when I'll provide my thoughts about the final episodes of a few TV series.The Price of the Crown was written in late 1990 and early 1991, approximately a ...