@Mad miraMax,
I do agree with you from the standpoint that, from a formalist standpoint, Inside is very well made. The cinematography is excellent, the acting is pretty uniformly good, and the makeup effects are convincing. Unfortunately, that script just ruins it for me. Personally, the "Let a movie be a movie"…

SPOILERS for Inside

Can someone please explain to me why Inside is so beloved? Strip away the X-TREEEM blood and gore and translate it into English, and it's pretty much every other stupid slasher movie in which the characters all act like complete fucking idiots so that the story can be stretched out to feature length.

I'm with everyone who mentions the Grant/Breyfogle stuff. They were the team on Detective Comics back when I started collecting, and while the stories might not necessarily be definitive, I have a great love for them. Also, Norman Breyfogle may be my favorite Batman artist ever. I wish he'd get more work these days.

I have to at least partially agree with subeamih. While I'm not someone who thinks wanton violence is necessary in everything, I could never help but feel that the Joker was a bit declawed in the animated series. It was always obvious that they wanted the Joker to be a psychotic murderer, but never actually allowing…

@Senator_Corleone,
Yeah, Sweetback does suck. What surprised me the most is that I found much of it to be intensely boring. Mario Van Peebles's Baadasssss is incredibly good, though.

Well, if Gladiator can win Best Picture…

I'm wondering if people are avoiding mentioning Avatar on purpose. I mean, I enjoyed it—perhaps not as much as most people I know—but I know that many did not.

I agree. Swap out Low for Aladdin Sane on the list of essentials.

I actually unabashedly and unironically love this movie. When I first watched it, I was expecting to find it to be hilariously campy. Instead, I got what felt more like some bizarre foreign arthouse horror film by way of The Outer Limits. (Obviously, the last part is pretty understandable.) The cinematography is…

I think "Squeeze" would be the perfect place to start, actually. Unlike "Pusher," "Squeeze" is actually incredibly creepy and really showcases what The X-Files could do best. Apart from that, it's only the third episode, so the viewer wouldn't have to backtrack very far.

New Nightmare is easily the best of the series. (I'm sure that sounds like damning with faint praise, but it's not intended that way.) Yes, I even enjoy it more than the classic original film (and the equally-if-not-more classic third film, Dream Warriors).

I guess I hadn't really paid attention to the lyrics for "Casimir Pulaski Day" before. Sweet Jesus, they're so much more depressing than the melody would have you believe!

Another Ben Folds song that qualifies is "The Luckiest." For a love song, it's so goddamned melancholy. Also, I happened to be listening to Ben Folds (and Ben Folds Five) a lot when I got together with one of my girlfriends. Because of that, it's difficult for me to listen to him/them, especially that song.

Jon Lajoie
I've been considering checking this show out mainly for Jon Lajoie. I saw his videos for "Show Me Your Genitals" and "I Kill People" on YouTube and was immediately convinced that he's a genius of some sort. Is there enough of him in the show to justify my watching it?

@Lovecraft In Brooklyn,
I promise you that, if you pick up the anthology The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian from the library or something, that should be all the gateway you need. (Start with "The Frost Giant's Daughter." It's only ten pages, and it is one of the best representations of what the stories are all about.)…

Collection Correction,
Not sure which versions you're referring to. I just checked Amazon, and all three are readily available. Also, the Random House website gives no indication that they're out of print.

Has anyone else read the Horn of Azoth graphic novel? It's supposed to more faithfully represent Roy Thomas and Gerry Conway's original story treatment for the film. Unfortunately, it's long been out of print.

@Ape Froman,
Say what you will, but "Beyond the Black River," which is basically an extremely thinly-veiled cowboys vs. Indians story, is absolutely one of my favorite Conan stories. I found it to be one of the most tense, gripping stories I've ever read, and it's full of badassery.

I honestly thought Ian McNeice seemed a bit too avuncular to play Baron Harkonnen. (I also hated John Harrison's faux-Shakespearian device of having Baron Harkonnen end scenes with dialogue consisting of rhyming couplets.) While he was leaps and bounds better than the portrayal of the Baron in Lynch's version—am I…