@lexicondevil - I hate the Narnia books for how sloppily written they are, but they may well serve a valuable purpose in introducing slightly-ahead-o-the-curve youngsters to the idea of 'allegory'.

I have faint memories of being a youngster in McDonalds or a similar fast food joint - there was this computer terminal near the ball pit bedecked in all manner of garish plastic that had an electronic encyclopedia on it. This must have been back when such things were novel, the 'Internet' was still a little in the…

When I first watched the video (ie, yesterday), my reaction was "tomorrow is Saturday, and Sunday comes afterwards" is where it crosses the line from just being bad to being 'really, no one involved in the production process cared enough to change this to something, anything else?' kind of bad.

Although I won't exactly defend Wolverine, I will say the end fight on the rim of the cooling tower had one or two really cool looking shots in it. Granted, that doesn't justify the movie as a whole - in fact, it arguably makes it all the more disappointing.

The Gift is the result of a great director and dream list of actors getting together to shoot an extraordinarily generic script. Great to watch, oddly memorable in atmosphere, but also kind of underwhelming and shallow.

I think one of the differences between the 9/11 joke and these is that (from what I remember) in 2001 all the tension needed some deflating. Suddenly, even Saturday Night Live was getting serious (instead of being just mildly unfunny). A joke or two in bad taste served a valuable purpose then. I can't say America has…

No One Lives Forever was all kinds of awesome - excellent gameplay, some very memorable set pieces (jumping out of the airplane and having to shoot your way to a parachute, the tornado-filled Akron-Ohio trailer park), and quite possibly the funniest video game Tim Schaffer didn't have a hand in. I'd be all for someone…

The video game series has, if not necessarily "rebooted", revised Lara's origin story a few times over the years. I think - it's not like the plots made that much sense anyway. There was an out-and-out remake of the first game, Tomb Raider Anniversary, released around '07. And it was actually pretty good - Tomb Raider…

You aren't alone, zetes - Pom Poko is awesome, I would argue better than Princess Mononoke (Grave of the Firelies, though - I'll leave that battle to you). The movie I've usually held it up favorably for comparison with is Wall-E: both films explicitly set out to explore humans' relationship to the environment, and I…

If you break the fourth wall enough, they put you in a little room with padded walls and study you through a mirror. The point is: do it enough, and eventually you get an audience.

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Reading these boards has reminded me of how utterly, utterly brilliant this movie is. I understand why audiences avoided it when it was initially released (probably, a lot of it had to do with its confusing title), but why the critical response at the time and since has been bad to lukewarm is confounding.

The King's Speech is already the embodiment of that, Baxter. I was entertained by the movie, but for a story of World War II and conflicts in the monarchy and everything, its telling that the biggest controversy over it has been over a scene where the king yells 'fuck' and 'bugger' too many times.

I second staircar. The right amount of contemplative / hopeful with a repetitive ending that would appropriately drive home the inevitable as the ground gets closer and closer.

I do, however, think Vincent Cassell appeared to have understood his role as requiring ham, that and that Mila Kunis seemed like she wanted to have a good time with the part, comedy or serious role or whathaveyou.

There was a piece on Slate (that may or may not have been linked in this article) that argued that the movie wasn't necessarily aiming for camp, but is nonetheless campy as hell. Before I read that the movie's tone confused the hell out of me, but should I watch it a second time expecting a comedy I'll find it pretty…

and that's where I laughed out loud at work.

Anywhere - how did you like The Naked City? I loved Dassin's other 'city' movie (Night and the…), but thought Naked was interminably boring.

The end is worth it for when they define how well-told a story is by if you know "whose ass it is and why its farting." Some succinct, quality screenwriting advice there, it is.

Agreed. I was involved with a community theater production of it and thought it was hilarious (as did, for that matter, the audiences). Awesomely, awesomely campy, though certainly quite self-aware. I think the real thing that keeps it from being performed more often isn't its reputation or quality, but the troupe of…