Back in the '90s, some critic at the East Bay Express dubbed this the "… from hell" genre.

I'd rather read a long article like that recent New York Times piece about how there's probably E coli in the burger you're eating right now. Not to mention that the scare tactics of a piece like that are way more effective in changing people's eating habits than a bunch of French people talking about how much they…

I thought Frailty was like The Rapture, basically a movie that confirms the existence of a cruel Old Testament God while at the same time showing this god isn't a loving father — He's a murderous, inscrutable tyrant. But that was probably just me wishing it was a stealth critique of religion. I think a god who insists…

Someone likes Couples Retreat
I just read a 3.5-star review (out of 5). The critic asserts that everyone else is wrong about this film, it's in the same league as Knocked Up and far superior to Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and Vince Vaughn is better than ever.

I like the fooling-you-into-disaster-preparedness theory. I have a friend of a friend who collects swords and machetes in her second-floor (safely above the ground) apartment in anticipation of the zombie apocalypse, yet she seems to be an otherwise rational person. This explanation helps.

Someone tried to convince me I had to hate Eisenberg because his sister was the Pepsi Girl. It worked for a while, but the Pepsi Girl and her irksomeness have been mostly forgotten.

I saw The Baader Meinhof Complex this weekend. Besides being historical, controversial and all that shit, it has so much sheer mindless mayhem and matter-of-fact nudity that I'm kind of surprised it's not doing better.

What I want to know is, is this movie even slightly true to the Keats we see in his letters? Because that's where you learn that Keats wasn't truly, sincerely emo, at least not all the time. He was kind of a prankster and definitely a hard-core Shakespeare geek, with the attendant insecurity and resentment of the…

Stylized sexual aggression as entertainment is as old as the 18th-century novel. Actually, it's probably as old as troubadour poetry. And think of all those paintings of satyrs chasing half-naked nymphs.

If you thought the internal monologues were annoying in the movie version, I recommend not reading the book. Or perhaps anything by Ellis, ever. The reason his satire is seldom funny (and works better in compressed film format) is that he belabors it like the aforementioned child sex slave.

Like Good Will Hunting and the Glass stories of J.D. Salinger, Juno is something I liked the first time but somehow know I never want to experience again because the twee-ness would overwhelm me.

I don't know. Perry has more wholesome or "humanistic" values than Bay, no doubt, and some of his actors do good work. But the way he directs, it's like he's basically filming community theater. (And we're watching it. Which… well, nothing wrong with that, but I could be supporting struggling hams in my own community.)

I wouldn't say awful, more tedious. It would be better if they removed the dialogue and explosions and just played it with a glam rock soundtrack, like they used to do with Metropolis on the college circuit. Because everything that's good about the movie is visual.

The Omen remake came out on 6/6/06. What a momentous occasion that was.

If his daughter doesn't end up a mall-shopping nonrecycler, she's a far better person than I.

I hear she gave up coffee. I couldn't do it. Is there anything resembling a caffeine source grown in the eastern US? I think people used to use chicory, but I can't say I have ever tried.

Yeah, the rattlers planted in the car in Hand-Carved Coffins is what I thought of. Someone should adapt that into a horror movie, as it's a gallery of grindhouse-worthy deaths. I'd like to think Capote made it up in his twisted little head, but supposedly it happened.

See, I wish Lorrie Moore would apply her skills with plausible characterization and witty wordplay to fleshing out ludicrous plots about cops who fall in love with organ-removing serial killers. Seriously. Hell, her writing is already pretty depressing; it couldn't get much darker.

Pauline Kael was largely pro-fun and was an early champion of Bonnie and Clyde, The Godfather, Carrie, Jaws, and, hell, even The Empire Strikes Back (though not Star Wars or Raiders). She seemed to think West Side Story was too grim and pretentious for a musical, and Alien… well, I can't defend her on that one. But…

Because I'm a nerd, the whole scenario and the numbered identities reminded me of the Cylons on BSG.