Turns out Best Buy can’t just steal your hard drive. It took a judge to explain that to them, but he did and they gave it back to me. The whole thing is still pretty stunning. Basically: Best Buy pulled a perfectly functional hard drive out of my laptop, without ever mentioning it to...
Reality Level
Signs of Patriotism
Sometimes I hear people describe criticism of Sarah Palin as “hate”. “All you liberals are hating on Sarah Palin!” It’s not hate, it’s patriotism. If you believe, as I do, that she is utterly unqualified, and that the country is in deep trouble, you have to believe that Palin is a threat to our...
Max Payne, Minimal Fun
There’s a movie in my head. I built it out of trailers for Max Payne. It has powerful, scary villains, a tortured hero, and the eternal, supernatural struggle between good and evil. It is laden with Norse mythology, and punctuated with intense set pieces that include guns and explosions and Valkyrie. It could be...
DC Madam or Governor of Alaska?
This is either Sarah Palin or Debra Jean Palfrow. This may be the same one, or the other one: And this could be either: That may not mean anything.
Washing that Mummy out of My Brain
It always annoys when my friends say something like: “I could have told you that,” after I report that some movie really sucked. No, no you couldn’t have told me that. Sure, the Mummy III: Tomb of Jet Li Phoning It In looked bad. There were many warning signs. But these friends would have...
A Defense of Uwe Boll
Uwe Boll is, possibly, the worst director, ever. Worse, he has attacked one of my other loves, video-games in his ridiculous attempts to adapt a number of classic videogame franchises for the big screen. The primary crimes against video games, against movies, and against humanity itself include: Alone in the Dark (ridiculous) House of...
Leaving Lost Vegas
Why am I writing this blog? It’s not as if there aren’t enough reviews our there, or that Rotten Tomatoes doesn’t do a pretty good job of aggregating all those opinions into something you can use. But people often ask my opinion about movies, and I find myself explaining. And sometimes, with movies like...
Speaking of The Incredible Hulk
I love cameos, but they raise an interesting question. When you suddenly see, and recognize, Lou Ferrigno, you are participating in the movie, not as pure story, but as part of a continuum with other movies on the same topic, as well as the genre as a whole. When Stan Lee shows up, or...
A Quantum of Solace: Pretty Good Bond Movie
I realize I saw awesome too much. To me, many things are awesome, at least in the moment. Later the experience fades and I can compare the awesome moment with many other moments, and awesome fades to average. The latest Bond movie, for instance. We walked out of the theater, to a nearby restaurant,...
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