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 ...
Whoever came up with the cliche "comedy is subjective" knew what he/she was talking about. Few things are more individual than humor. One person's Monty Python is another person's Freddy Got Fingered. This makes reviewing comedies especially hard...
During the course of my recent trip to Manila, I read two books. The first, read from cover to cover during the trip over, was Sue Grafton's R is for Richocet, the latest (and 18th) in the "Alphabet Murder" series. There's not too much to be said ...
Note: For those who don't live in the United States, here's a quick recap of the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) rating system:G: General Audiences. Suitable for all ages.PG: Parental Guidance Suggested. May not be suitable for young ...
Like many of those reading this column, I have been glued to the television this week watching coverage of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. The images are stunning, like something out of a Hollywood blockbuster. This is reality but, in a way, ...
Every time you turn around, King Kong is another height. In the 1933 version, he started out about 18 feet tall, then grew seven feet for the New York scenes. In the 1976 re-make, he was between 40 and 50 feet tall. The Japanese Kong movies ...
Starting today, ReelThoughts will go on a two week hiatus. This is to allow me to provide daily reports/updates from the Toronto International Film Festival. Those of you who like reading my daily output have nothing to worry about - I often write ...
Based on a sampling of e-mails I received this morning, I am in the position of having to defend my decision to review Herbie Fully Loaded while ignoring The Perfect Man. Both are targeted at pretty much the same demographic, although one could make...
As amazing as it is to consider, box office receipts of $125 million in 12 days are viewed as disappointing. I'm sure the executives at Warner Brothers aren't in mourning, but there is no doubt that Batman Begins has underperformed. Expectations ...
When Warner Brothers determined the opening date of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, they carefully examined the release schedule and decided this was the best weekend to put it into theaters. The only other "major" is the R-rated Wedding Crashers...
If you conduct an on-line search for one particular word, you will get an amazing array of responses. It's the "Orginal Hypertex Project." It's a language and translation wizard. It's a swingers club in Manchester. It's an undersea adventure ...
Some critics will argue that there is no such thing as a "guilty pleasure." Either you like a film or you don't like it. If you like it, there shouldn't be any "guilt" involved. While I understand that position, I think the term "guilty pleasure" ...
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 ...
In the United States, today is Thanksgiving. Historically, the holiday commemorates a feast that occurred to mark the first successful harvest in the United States, and the peacable interaction between the pilgrims and the Native Americans. (How ...
I was at a concert this past Saturday evening, and a little thing got me thinking about how much culture has changed since I was a kid. Change happens so slowly that it's almost imperceptible to those who are living through it. But when you examine...
I remember the last big format war: Beta versus VHS. It's the thing that kept my parents from buying a VCR until the path forward was clear. It kept the video recording industry from exploding until 1985, when VCRs could have become big three or ...
Can the ratings system be fixed? Perhaps, but only with radical action. Maybe not as radical as what I'm about to propose, but mere "tweaking" will not be enough. Out-of-the-box thinking is required, and there's not a lot of that in Hollywood. ...