"Having is not so pleasing a thing after all as wanting. It is not logical, but it is often true. " - Spock, "Amok Time"When I was a kid, my favorite day of the year was December 24. Not Christmas Day, but the day before. For me, that was the ...
For those of us who write movie reviews, there's a phrase we all know: "review embargo." In layman's terms, this means that reviews are not supposed to appear on a website until the day the movie opens. Studios like to employ embargoes because it ...
Censor: to examine (as a publication or film) in order to suppress or delete any contents considered objectionable. [Miriam-Webster; emphasis mine]Death of a President is opening in the United States next week... sort of. I am already on record as ...
That's the most pointed question I can think of regarding the Oscars. My solution is to record the thing then watch it late at night, skipping over commercials, filler, and speeches that turn into lists of names. When you think about it, that's ...
In the wake of my recent statement that IMO 2007 was the worst year for movies since I started reviewing, I received a reader's challenge asking if I could come up with numbers to support that assertion. So I spent a few hours this past weekend ...
For those curious about the title, the Harvest Moon is the first full moon after the Autumnal Equinox. It is usually the October full moon, but this year it happened to occur in late September. The first full moon after the Harvest Moon is the ...
Here's a link to Part One, in which I discussed two of the three most common complaints about George Lucas. Part Two picks up with some comments about the third "sore spot."Finally, there's the whole merchandising situation. In some circles, Lucas ...
Note: This was originally designed to be a single post but, by the time I finished writing it, I realized it was too long to be reasonably read in one sitting. So I'm splitting it into two pieces. Part two will be posted in about one week.By now, I...
A discussion of how George Lucas' approach to making and marketing "Star Wars" contrasts with the style used by Disney.
Like a dog to its vomit, I keep coming back to rants about the same pet peeves. Maybe it's because I spend so little time at general admission multiplex movies, but it's tough to surpress a wince of outrage every time a commercial appears on screen...
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 ...
Over the 30-year span that comprised his retirement, my grandfather regulated his life with impressive consistency. He adhered to a standard routine every morning when his golf game didn't take him out on the links at the crack of dawn; I witnessed ...
Apparently, Universal Studios doesn't have a high opinion of its customer base. Or, to put it another way, they must think we were all born yesterday. Even if you believe that Universal is jumping on the "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" bandwagon...
Life was simpler when I was growing up. Please note that the term "simpler" does not imply "better." Life, like technology, advances. The complexity of day-to-day living has increased as the number of possibilities has multiplied. Every time my ...
I have received so many e-mails about my previous ReelThoughts entry ("The Death of Blu-Ray, 2030 A.D.") that I thought some kind of follow-up might be useful. This is one of those rare instances in which a fully interactive comments section would ...
The question hanging over the DVD industry is simple: Has Toshiba's HD-DVD become the new Betamax?The facts are indisputable on the high definition DVD front. Not only have more of Sony's Blu-Ray discs been bought in total, but Blu-Ray is ...
Thus far, most of the talk about high-def has related to the format war. It's well known that the studios are investing a lot of hope on the success of the Blu-Ray and/or HD-DVD market. Standard DVD sales are lagging badly, primarily because nearly...