"Yojimbo" if you're a newbie, "Ran" if you want his best, "Seven Samurai" if you just want a good old-fashioned adventure film. "High and Low" is awesome once you get tired of feudal Japan. I'd stay away from "The Hidden Fortress" and "Dersu Uzala," though. Not because they're bad, but because everything else is so…

I'm more cynical than most people, but I'm not so cynical as to believe that most authors would be willing to sell out this world they've so painstakingly created just for the sake of a paycheck. There are easier ways to make money than writing 700-page fantasy novels.

Except Tolkien wasn't an amateur by that time - he'd already written The Hobbit and was basically under contract to produce LotR. He did have the good fortune to have a publisher who was patient with his lengthy writing process, but it CAN work. And it paid off - LotR is a timeless classic that is still raking in the…

I dunno, the rap wasn't all that funny, but her sheer commitment made it enjoyable at least. 'Course, Anne Hathaway can get away with a lot by sheer dint of looking like Anne Hathaway, so…

I haven't seen many movies in the theater (and most of the ones I have seen, like "Cowboys and Aliens," have been rather poor), but from what I've heard of the smaller releases, this has been a pretty good summer overall.

I don't mind F&S. Then again, TomWaits/Lone Audience never bothered me that much either. I guess I just don't understand how some people can work up the energy to hate them even as they willingly wade through vast swamps of "I would totally DO Christina Hendricks" threads.

We've been watching the 51-episode original series, Archmage. It's on Netflix Instant. In contrast to Gary X's advice, I've heard that you definitely DON'T want to watch "Brotherhood," but I haven't seen it myself. The series I'm watching seems like a good place to start for newbies, though, if only because it starts…

I've heard good things about "The Trip" all over the place. I'm assuming the fact that you watched it means that it's hit DVD now, Craig?

I don't like this either. What happens to the TomWaitsforSnowmans of the world: the guys who are usually pretty reasonable and non-offensive, yet for some reason half of the community hates them?

Whoa … same timestamp and everything, too.

Seems like Kenny Herzog is trying to write about "Curb" the way that Todd VanDerWerff writes about "Deadwood": come up with some grand thesis statement for the series as a whole, then shove really hard until he crams every episode into that box.

+1 to Don Staples. We are living in the future and it terrifies me.

Yeah, another vote for Battletoads being the worst. The water level in TMNT was ridiculously hard, but I managed to get past it. I even watched my friend beat the game. But Battletoads, I'm convinced, is impossible unless you literally devote every waking moment to practicing it.

To this day, "Kirby's Adventure" for the NES looks fantastic, and it's fun as hell. All the different powers you can get make for really high replay value, too.

Smurfs 2: Smurfed on the Novel "Smurf" by Smurf-phire

On Friday, in the name of harmony and brotherhood, I agreed to go to "Cowboys and Aliens" with some friends. The beginning was actually pretty promising. Daniel Craig basically was playing "Jason Bourne in the Wild West," and Harrison Ford's first scene, where he's bugging out his eyes and talking with a weird accent…

Benedict Cumberpatch
I steadfastly refuse to believe that is an actual name. Maybe he used to hang out too much with Engelbert Humperdinck.

"He did not invent limited focus; he merely overuses it."
Damn, son. Burn.

It'd be cool if we could get more staff discussions like these in the comment section, if you guys have time. When there's a significant disparity in how different AV Club writers evaluate a movie, it's interesting to get a sense of the range of opinions instead of the single review from the person who liked/didn't…

@WolfmansRazor: The reason it bothers me so much in Mad Men isn't the device itself so much as the way it's overused in historical TV shows and movies. It's a lazy way for the writers to goose the audience: Character A is watching a movie with Ronald Reagan and snorts, "THAT guy's going to be completely forgotten in a…