I basically liked Albert Hosteen just fine, but only because of how he was used in "Paper Clip." His scene with Skinner and CSM is one of the high points of the entire series.

And don't forget Kurtwood Smith and Jesse Ventura.

Back in 2000, I was taking a class on Homer's Iliad, which we were reading in Greek. The professor liked to talk about the "descending scale of affection," a Homeric device in which a character lists the things that are important to him—family, honor, the gods—in an order that expresses something about his…

When I first saw High Fidelity, back when I was 20, I was somehow under the impression that it was about pop culture geekery. When I saw it again more recently, I suddenly realized that it's actually about relationships. This probably counts as progress on my part.

In the year 3000, when you go to the movies, I imagine that the theater will instantly download your memories, dreams, and tastes to a centralized database and adjust the plot, actors, and soundtrack accordingly, providing you with an experience that eerily reflects your inner life, even if much of the story itself…

@teadoust: I don't think De Niro was ever Scorsese's first choice for Last Temptation of Christ, but just a fallback plan in case they couldn't get financing any other way. And De Niro never seemed too interested in the role.

The trouble with Fight the Future is that they wanted to make a self-contained movie that non-fans of the show could enjoy, and it was hard to create a nuanced portrait of an alien race that could be conveyed in 120 minutes. So the aliens in the movie are basically just monsters. The show struggled ever after to…

I like Salma Hayek because—well, aside from the obvious reasons—she's one of the rare contemporary actresses who has the first clue about how to manage her career: maximize your peak earning years, date a few actors or rock stars if you must, then marry a foreign gazillionaire once you hit your late thirties. Then…

Nice work, guys. Former AAJA keynote speaker Martin Bashir would be proud:

Can't we just digitally reanimate Robert Morley and be done with it?

@Hmm: I'm not a journalist, either.

It's really Carrot Top's role to turn down.

A while back, I attended a trivia bowl sponsored by the Chicago branch of the Asian-American Journalists Association. For one of the rounds, participants had to identify various celebrities and news figures from photographs alone.

Korean genres
So I'm no expert on Korean cinema, but it seems like every Korean movie that makes it overseas—Oldboy, The Host, Nowhere to Hide, and the one discussed here, among countless others—comes across as a crazy mash-up of tones and genres, at least to my eyes. I'm curious to know whether this is a particular…

@berselius: I tried something similar with the future Mrs. The Information, but I used "Time Keeps On Slippin'," and it worked fine.

Why couldn't she have been the other kind of mermaid?

Which of the following would you most prefer: A) a puppy, B) a pretty flower from your sweetie, or C) a large, properly formatted data file? CHOOSE!

What's this? Two meals in one week?

@Defender and others: I agree about Cruise, who for a long time was the most reliable brand in Hollywood. For something like twenty years, I could count on a Cruise movie being at the very least watchable and well-made, and often terrific, which is something that I couldn't say of any other major star. Say what you…

The Troll epic already exists. It's called Norse mythology.