I frequently write things that have nothing do with movies, although most of them go unpublished because of my fundamental laziness when it comes to taking all the tedious steps necessary to get them from a semi-final state to where they're in a ...
Where did I leave off? Oh yes - King Kong. Well, if I didn't, that's where I should have left off. The problem about writing these poorly organized pieces is that I tend to wander down blind alleys chasing tangents, then lose track of where I am ...
For some people, high school is blur of booze and drugs. For me, it was a blur of Dungeons & Dragons and Star Trek. Yet, while that's certainly enough to cement my geek credentials, there was something that kept me from uber-geek status: I liked ...
This will be the first of a several-part series ruminating about various "geeky" pursuits and culminating in a discussion of how Hollywood typically misrepresents one of the most glorious of occurrences: geek love.When I was growing up, the preferred...
First, a word from our sponsors... Several readers have e-mailed me to suggest I remind visitors on a regular basis of the importance of the ads. Due to ad blindness, there's a tendency to forget and/or ignore the ads unless prompted. I know there ...
And so we come to the end of "My Life as a Geek"... (Figuratively speaking, that is.)Actually, most of the autobiographical details have already been filled in. Now it's time for a broader discussion about nerds and geeks in general and how ...
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...
Fond reminiscences of the first four films I saw theatrically: "King Kong", "Star Wars", "Oh! God", and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind."
As the economy worsens, it's legitimate to ask how this is impacting the motion picture industry, if at all. It's a time-honored tradition that, in bad times, people often turn to entertainment as a means of escape. At about ten dollars per ticket...
Once, not that many years ago (or so it seems), taking the family to a movie was easily the most cost-effective way of spending an evening out together. That remains true today, even with sky-high concession prices and 3-D surcharges - it's cheaper...
I'm not the only one expressing this sentiment this weekend: Welcome back, Roger. Oh, I know he hasn't really been away. He has written occasional reviews and other columns for the Chicago Sun-Times and has been hard at work rehabbing, but there's ...
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 ...
"James, you take movies too seriously." Those words (or ones nearly like them) were spoken to me 24 years ago by my college girlfriend, Tracie. They were true then and, if anything, they are truer today. Ironically, her theatrical experience (among ...
Memo to the studios and the MPAA: The way to combat piracy is not to commit highway robbery.What am I talking about? I'm referring to the new marketing strategy that has many movies being made available for broadband download on the same day/date ...
A brief chronology of horror movies through the years - from the silent era to the PG-13 and "Found Footage" flavors.
Back by popular demand... more hate mail. As I have previously noted, I get plenty of negative e-mail (as one would suppose from anyone who puts opinions out there the way I do). Every once in a while, I decide to share a few so you, my faithful ...
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 ...