The Decalogue kicks ass. As does the Three Colors trilogy. God I love Kieslowski.

I've been reading the b&w 70s comics that Dark Horse has reprinted. Has anyone else read them? Are they good representations of Howard's Conan or not? For some reason, in all my obsessive sf and fantasy reading as a kid, I missed out on Howard.

Well, a lot of it depends on what you're into, but Hitchcock was at his Hollywood peak—North by Northwest and Vertigo. But what about Bridge on the River Kwai? That's a masterpiece.

the terror
I think I might get kicked out of AV Club circles for this, but my resolution might be having to finish the last couple hundred pages of The Terror. I've been reading it all month and it's been a slog. I loved Simmon's sf novels, but this, which I thought I'd love, keeps being needlessly and tediously…

Yeah, but the problem was the poor guy was dying when he wrote the last one. Apparently he would outline a book, then go back again and again, layering more in each time and fleshing it out. So even though the basics of everything he had planned is more or less present, he passed away before "finishing" it.

I made myself read it "for fun" in college and didn't hate it, but didn't like it, either. Then I had to read it in grad school, and it definitely makes a difference having it taught to you. Definitely appreciated and enjoyed it more the second time around. Not that I've got any plans to ever reread it again,…

Paths of Glory is a great, great movie, and anyone who hasn't seen it should make a point of watching it. But the best of the 50s?

I've only read War and Peace, Anna Karenina, and The Death of Ivan Ilyich. Anna Karenina is the only one that didn't have repeat value for me when I tried to read it second time. Couldn't even get a hundred pages into it.

I'd love to read their new translation of Tolstoy's short stories.

gene wolfe
I'm a huge fan—gotta be since I've got all but four or five of his books in first edition—but I've also slowed down on reading his new stuff. His narrators always sound exactly the same. Or maybe that's just an argument for not obsessively reading everything by a single, relatively prolific author.

I agree. I've just about given up on asking about them. I may have missed it when they did, but neither Keith nor Tasha ever seem to respond anymore when someone in the comments asks about those features. I liked Book vs. Film and loved Box of Paperbacks. It seems unfair that they've been (at least to all…

for the record
I, too, find nun-raping quite distracting.

My first thought was, Jerry Lewis was in a bad sci fi movie in the fifties?

poker
I'd have actually been a little curious to hear what he thought about Celebrity Poker Showdown. I only ever saw a few episodes of it, but it was strangely engrossing. I do remember one glorious episode—was it the championship?—that had both Maura Tierney and Lauren Graham. Heaven. Just . . . heaven.

Ahem. Billy Joel: "You could really be a Beau Brummel, baby / If you just give it half a chance."

PeterK, eh, don't worry about it. It wouldn't be the internet if we didn't get worked up every now and then, you know?

The older sister is more Mean Girlish than Mallory ever was. (Though it's been a long, long time since I've watched Family Ties, so I might be forgetting the odd instance.) Would Mallory ever have pulled the scorpion trick from "Fizbo" and been as vindictive as that?

No, sadly what reveals my "exteremely" limited intellect is that I'm going to bother to reply. Thank you for your "undersatnding", but while I don't share in the lovefest for the show, I never said I dislike it, either. I don't actually watch things I know I dislike. You apparently want to assume that if I didn't…

No, I meant in terms of judging Phil and Claire (the husband and wife). I think they should grow on you, and if they don't . . . well, I'm not sure how much you're going to find the show a keeper. If possible, go back and watch the first couple of episodes where they really set up their characters. You might like…

narration at the end
Hell, I'll go to bat for the narration at the end. I haven't always been a fan of the sentimental endings on the show, but last night's felt earned and tied things up nicely. I appreciated it.