And btw, BRINGING UP BABY is tits.

I think you're overreacting to perceived offenses. D'Angelo hasn't made any effort to slight the writers of BRINGING UP BABY. His focus is simply (as it has been through most of this feature) on the director and his/her actors. You may be justified in questioning the value of the auteur theory as a whole, or even…

To clarify: I am not criticizing the characters of THE WIRE, who I think are mostly incredibly well-crafted, cast, and performed. I only mean that *who* these people were only very rarely mattered from a dramatic action standpoint independent of *what* they represented. That's perfectly right for the nature of that…

I agree with Noel and Keith that Jack's justification for detonating the bomb in Season 5 ("I had her") was some serious bullshit. Certainly it was the gaping flaw in the otherwise phenomenal finale. You know what it reminded me of? Some of the supposed "character development" in Seasons 1-3, when a mini-story…

Pretty damn disappointed, myself.
Four central crimes of this episode:
1. Horrendous CG shot diving down into the ocean to reveal submerged island. Looks like Peter Jackson at his goofiest in LOTR, only with even less convincing effects. Couldn't they have broken the shot with a slow descent and a series of dissolves,…

analogy for Godard
Can we not look to Brecht? Obviously it's an imperfect analogy, but, given his obvious and enduring influence on Godard, it might be a good place to start.

Anybody remember the story about monkeys going wild in some Indian city and killing the Deputy Mayor? I believe they backed him off his own balcony, and he plummeted to his doom.

I'm talking about fifteen minutes to get to the point that the gang used to smoke. We saw Lily and Robin smoke before the wedding (and I think maybe another time, as well) in season 2. In either season 1 or 2, Marshall implied that he likes to smoke when he's drunk. Ted and Barney I don't remember specifically, but…

Lazy River
This episode seems lazy and self-satisfied to me. The complete lack of action - it's worth pointing out that they spent half the episode establishing a fact that longtime viewers already knew - would be acceptable if the jokes killed or the insights went deep.

Jackass Number Two was the funniest movie I saw all decade. I understand not everyone feels that way about it, but isn t the funiest movie you saw all decade going to end up pretty high on your list? I love the Jackass guys and the energy and creativity they bring to their stunts . I m happy to defend the merit of…

10 and then some honorable mentions.

7 through 9.

4, 5, and 6

My top three, with coments

Hmm… left off artists' names on the top 5. Apologies, I wrote these up this morning in another file.

I'm in, too. Notes for the top 10:

Townes Van Zandt
Hey Nathan, don't want to bug you, but I'm curious about the removal of Townes Van Zandt from the "Up Next" list. Was there another research snag (books arriving late, etc.)?

Yes, Z and MISSING are both fantastic. And I'm equally puzzled that anyone would question Jack Lemmon. He gets a lifetime pass for his Billy Wilder movie alone.

The first ten minutes of UP are so amazing I still have not gotten over it. The rest of the film is pretty conventional, but still strong.

Are you kidding? Disney's ROBIN HOOD holds up? That's one of the darkest moments in all of Disney animation. The movie doesn't even have an ending! Right when the climax is supposed to arrive, the narrator steps in to explain what happened.