The Live Oscar Blog (2010 Mar 08)

Here, verbatim, is my live commentary from last night's Oscar telecast. I will post something more analytical in a day or two discussing my overall feelings about the entertainment value of the program and whether the night was as historic as is ...

Has AVATAR Changed the 3-D Game? (2010 Feb 28)

Not that long ago, my position on 3-D was that of a Doubting Thomas. Then along came Avatar, which has been called everything from a "game-changer" to the "latest great cinematic breakthrough." It has been compared to The Jazz Singer in its ...

Beat Berardinelli (2010 Feb 21)

The time has come for me to provide my annual Oscar picks, although this time they are arriving accompanied by a "Beat Berardinelli" contest (to be run through the forums) which will provide an opportunity for one lucky contestant to win something. ...

Boredom, Incivility & Other Symptoms (2010 Feb 08)

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 ...

Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? (2010 Jan 26)

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 ...

Saving the World at $10 Per Gallon (2010 Jan 17)

Do we stand at the brink of an abyss? Could it be that all of the disaster movies invading theaters are closer to reality than anyone might like to expect? When humanity's end comes, could it be from something as seemingly minor as the absence of a...

The Top 10 of 2010? (2010 Jan 10)

Every year begins with high expectations: a handful (or perhaps more) of titles that tantalize with the possibility of greatness or, at the very least, of providing a satisfying two hours in a movie theater. When it comes to quality, "Best of" lists...

Sour Gripes and Fearless Predictions (2010 Jan 05)

Let me begin this look back/gaze ahead by remarking on the webmaster's equivalent of "sticker shock." I'm referring to January ad revenue. Historically, it has always been low at the time of the calendar change, but in 2010, it's positively putrid...

Closing out the Decade with Another Top 10 (2009 Dec 31)

[Note: I don't want to get drawn into tedious arguments about whether the next decade begins in 2010 or 2011. Purists will argue that it starts in 2011 and, in an absolute sense, they're correct. But who really cares? Relativistically, any 10-year...

Another Decade Bites the Dust (2009 Dec 29)

If the 1990s represented the early years of the Internet (not really its birth, but the time when the general public first became aware of it), the 2000s were when it came of age. Most of the common applications and sites we use on a regular basis ...

The Top 10 of 2009 (2009 Dec 27)

Here they are… the best of the best, the cream of the crop, the acme of 2009, etc. Top 10 lists serve a few purposes. For the person making them, they represent an opportunity to clarify what emerged as memorable from the year gone by. For those...

A Dozen Top Performances of 2009 (2009 Dec 24)

It's that time of the year again. As December winds to a close, critics of all sorts gaze back at the past 12 months and try to provide intelligent, insightful reflections about things that happened, trends, and so forth. You won't find any of that...

Torrents and the TARDIS (2009 Dec 13)

If you were to ask a random group of Hollywood executives what the greatest problem facing the industry is, three out of four would probably say "piracy." They would cite, chapter and verse, the overinflated numbers being circulated about how much ...

Turkey Day! (2009 Bottom 10) (2009 Nov 26)

The year's not over yet, but let's pretend. Thanksgiving, with its image of turkeys, is just too good a day to pass up for reflecting on the junk of the past year. Let's reserve late December for remembering what was good about the year gone by (...

The NEW MOON Gender Gap (2009 Nov 24)

An email sent to me yesterday read: "James, See that you loved NEW MOON as much as I did. You gotta check out the imdb rating splits. It will blow your mind."First, a word about IMDb ratings: they have their uses but to rely too heavily on them for...

Permutations of Change (2009 Nov 22)

"A change, my dear, and it seems not a moment too soon…" So spoke Colin Baker at the end of "The Caves of Androzani," the actor's late-inning introduction to the role of Doctor Who. Those words might just as easily apply to the American Presidency...

Backlash (2009 Nov 17)

It happens every year. Critics see a film and praise it. Early audience response is rapturous. Adulation pours in from every corner. The director and stars are interviewed and the photogenic ones find themselves in a paparazzi-generated fishbowl...