Strangely, this may be the movie that cemented my opinion of Martin Scorsese as my favorite director. It's not his best film, but watching it for the first time was an incredibly intense experience, and one that said "this guy can make any kind of movie he wants."  By the time Dunne slaps the paperweight out of Garr's…

That line about the vending machine is awesome. I was a little bugged by Joe Pi at first; I know Moore's playing off the cliche that a "token" minority character on television tends to be just an amazing all-around person beyond reproach, but it still made me roll my eyes a little bit. Then Pi went and handled the…

It sounds like even Soundgarden knows it wasn't their fault that this was a hit. There was a running theme in the early 90s of rock bands needing a ballad-y ("but not REALLY a ballad, because those are lame!") song as a big breakthrough hit; something that could be marketed as more than "just" a rock song.  There's no…

Not a big fan of that song, but god damn is it an excellent credits sequence.

Dunno if this is documented or apocryphal, but in an old Jay Ward documentary one of his collaborators told a story about a publicity stunt to petition the US government to recognize Moosylvania's sovereignty. Apparently they gathered a bunch of signatures, decorated a van all "wacky campaign" style, and drove it to…

This isn't really "pop culture," but I found out that the only thing keeping a group of 30-year-old women from sexually assaulting a Lil Sebastian-sized stuffed horse is a bottle of Hypnotiq.

My favorite Mr-Know-It-All: How to Cook a Turkey's Goose
 http://youtu.be/hdCWgWlbyLU

Which Fractured Fairy Tale has the king who's convinced he's going to get turned into a frog, despite the fact that it's a completely different story. Then at the end, he out of nowhere turns into a frog, with a classic "I knew it" (sad trombone noise)?

I'd argue the point, but I'm on my way out. It's been nearly four hours since I bought anything at Sears, ate at IHOP, or used violence as the ultimate solution to my problems.

Yeah, there's real talent in the cast, and everyone seems to give it the ol' college try, which bodes well for the inevitable sequels (provided they can find someone else to write and direct them.)

Kevin Costner in "Man of Steel."

God damn you.

WHO THE HELL GAVE CASEY THAT QUESTION???

CUT MAN!

That's just it. Yes, job safety and efficiency are important, but the labor forces of entire industries are being effectively dismantled because the work is either unnecessary or because some poor schmuck 6,000 miles away will do the same work for $1.50 a day.

Safety is one thing, but the attitude of the scene IS indicative of short-sightedness because it's clear that finding new jobs (or training) for people (often entire families) that have been the foundation of those corporations' profits for years (decades? generations?) is not seen as the corporations' responsibility.

His big speech was the grandstanding apex of a nervous breakdown, after which he (or the network, or both, depending on how you want to look at it) took the wreckage of himself and rebuilt it as a shallow rabble-rousing "personality."

My favorite Sbotka moment is when he and his fellow union heads are watching a PowerPoint presentation on the proposed technological renovation, and the presenter mentions that automated systems have helped reduce on-the-job injury by x-percent. Sbotka turns to his friend and mutters, "can't get hurt at work if…

Every time I read/watch that monologue, I'm moved almost to tears. Not because of its power (which is substantial), but because it's been damn near 30 years and things have gotten both worse and more transparent, which means Beale/Chayefsky was right: we don't care, at least not nearly enough.

There's a point late in the miniseries where I realized that everything happening was exactly what would normally happen in an existing title during a big company-wide event while the main miniseries centered around actual.. y'know.. THINGS HAPPENING.