Motherless Brooklyn could be really interesting, it is cinematic in its pacing. It would be real easy to screw it up and just make it a tic-fest oscar grab.

No, it gets worse in those regards.

Star Wars?
After emerging from the theater after th opening night of "The Phantom Menace" dazed by disappointment and feeling that slow build of fiery resentment I really had no hope for the remainder of the prequel trilogy. oh, I knew they could be saved, but obviously the man calling the shots had no interest in…

sarCCastro: I have to agree, I was surrounded by fans of the show so I suffered through it. Awful. And the black girl was such a wasted character, in the first two episodes she's reading some old books, making a point of being the smart character… then what, by the middle of the season she's just an idiot. I've been…

Really though, as potent of an anti-drug movie as this may be, that isn't the main thrust of the film. The dream being eulogized is not the dream of getting high, or of being a drug dealer/boutique owner/game show participant, and if you missed that then maybe you should be forced to watch the film again. I know the…

@Elitist: I get you.

Bushmills has a great 16 year, sherry casked and then port piped. It is some smooth, sweetwater whiskey. Of course, it's as pricey as a decent scotch. Jameson's is great too, I wouldn't make an Irish coffee with anything else.

That's papist whiskey.

Yuengling isn't distributed out here, but I've had some and it is a great beer. Thankfully, there is no shortage of great beers in the U.S.

There are so many great brands of gin on the market these days, but my heart belongs to the discontinued Tanqueray Malacca a wonderfully smooth sipping gin. Other than that, gimlets (and yeah, they do have to be a lime syrup) rickeys, and the unbeatable gin and tonic. Nothing beats a summer night watching the quinine…

TLAotA: I know, and that Cronenberg succeeds at that ambition, and does so very well, is why I love "A History of Violence." Really, it just seemed like an awful lot of disdain for the film and I wanted to give one of the reasons I enjoy the film so much.

christ. "writing" should of course be "righting."

Alright, I liked "A History…" A lot, I thought it was a great inversion of some of the noir-esque themes of identity (a good guy, grievously wronged, must subsume his goodness into a alter ego in order to get close to those who wronged him and enact justice). By making Mortensen a bad guy who disappeared in a common…

Personally I prefer the movie "Eastern Promises," but I think "A History…" allows Mortensen to show his talents a little bit more. Really just a judgment call, both performances were stellar and I really enjoyed both movies and think either choice would be at home on the AV Club's list. Instead I think I'll just set…

Wow, I am ashamed I didn't immediately think of Mortensen. Either performance is noteworthy but I'd have to agree with Strugglebunny, the genial menace of Mortensen in "Eastern Promises" is a bit trumped by the well played character dichotomy in "A History of Violence". Such damned good movies.

Azudarko: (Well, SPOILERS a bit) See, what I was saying was that yes, those were strong parts of the book. Those events are not the climax of the book however, those were elements of the resolution. I'm sorry if I was being ambiguous at all. The climax would be the sudden and odd thrashings and hungers of a house,…

Azudarko: I think we may be referring to different aspects of the book as the climax. I think the denouement and epilogue were both very well handled, but the climax, the action that brought so much of the story to a head… that was by-the-numbers enough to be dissonant with the sophistication and layering of the rest…

Jim: That's awesome. He's a really great guy, I realized that my impression came from the amount of signed copies he gives away to all the bookstores out here in Colorado - normally when an author gives so much away he's trying to drive up readership, not just being a great guy. Simmons is a pretty great guy, I just…

I'll have to check out 20th Century… Though I was let down by "Heart Shaped Box", the premise was good, the set up was better, but then it didn't seem to add anything really substantive until the resolution. Like too many horror stories/movies it got progressively less scary and more predictable as the novel wore on.…

Jim: I was pleasantly shocked to see "The Terror" on the list, I wouldn't have thought that Simmons got enough exposure to be considered. Then again, he does live nearby and so I might be mistaking a national presence for a local fervor. Still, a nice inclusion.