Monasteries were Party Central in the Middle Ages— read the Decameron or Chaucer. They're described like frats, basically.

I was temping, and this salesman gave me a long unsolicited lecture on how thought-provoking these books are, because they question everything you think you know about Christianity. He then launched into some conspiracy theories involving Freemasons and the income tax.

See, that's why J. J. Abrams is the great blandifier. He takes nerdy genres and franchises, casts cute young unknowns and turns them into mainstream fare.

Having seen both, I vote for the bleakness. That's a personal preference; Star Trek was fine summer action fun with 'splosions, wisecracks, token character development, etc. It just won't stick with me.

The "sheer 1000-foot cliff" is in Barre, Vermont. 'Tis a granite quarry, probably with CGI enhancement. Our local press is going crazy for this silliness.

OK, I hate rom coms, and there's not much to redeem this movie, but I think it's interesting as an example of a rom com that plays to women's suspicions that men really don't like or respect them. (And that the hate is part of what fuels sexual appetite.) The line about how he makes women come by making them hate…

I review movies on a five-star scale, and because of folks like Dan (actually, more because of my fussy, hyperactive inner critic) I've avoided ever giving more than four stars in over 100 reviews. I can think of a handful of films I felt like giving more, like WALL-E, The Dark Knight and 28 Weeks Later, and a few I…

There's no doubt in my mind that Kael loved movies. In fact, her thesis in "Trash, Art and the Movies" is that people who love trashy movies should just own up to loving trashy movies for their inherent pleasures, Ebert-style, instead of trying to redefine them as Cinematic Art. That's pretty much what she did when…

I too saw a big girls'-night-out contingent and, sadly, I don't think they were there for shirtless Liev Schreiber.

I wouldn't call that movie "good," but agree that it was a helluva lot more fun than Wolverine. Yeah, I would rank it higher. It was an old-fashioned see-in-a-full -house-in-Times-Square movie. This was just a mess.

Just how many existential-contemplation-afflicted hitmen are out there at this point?

I love Pulse, but agree Ju-On is a better introduction. It's all the conventions of the genre stripped to their essence. For someone who likes drama and character development with their horror, I would screen Dark Water (not the remake).

Maybe the stereotype started with Blow Up. You know, the whole shooting-gorgeous-model-while-straddling-her thing.

Fool's Gold, anyone?

I saw the trailer for Obsessed three times before other shitty movies, so I had plenty of time to analyze it. Beyonce really isn't the focus— it's more the guy's temptation by Ali Larter and her craziness. (I still remember her pathetic attempt at a Young-Sharon-Stone casually sultry facial expression in the clip…

My informal analysis based on one theater: The Soloist attracts older couples and the occasional young woman, like most Oscar bait. But because it's a surprisingly restrained film without a big "inspirational" ending, it fails in the Oscar-bait category as well. One of those decent movies that passes the eye-roll test…

I thought it was a huge snooze. I watched the BBC series afterward, and it was way better even with advance awareness of the twists. But maybe I just prefer John Simm to Pudgy-Era Russell Crowe. In the movie, the character basically gets the whole huge story himself with a bit of assistance from his adoring…

Does the evil twin boil Beyonce's chihuahua?

Is it true Ellis wrote these stories before Less Than Zero— like, when he was in junior high or something? Vampires— WTF?

You will see the twist coming in the first twenty minutes or so, though you may still wonder whether they'll bother to go there.