Not only is the ending of A.I. not happy, it can be read as a comment on forced happy endings. I only saw it the one time, but I distinctly remember walking out of the theater feeling like Spielberg had made a great film.

Bird seemed to be laying out the tone of the passage rather than specifying specific dialogue. But hey, it'd be cool to see Luke drop an f-bomb right before Yoda declares him Jedi.

I like salmon (my local purveyor serves a version of nigiri-style salmon with a little bit of chili oil and a few slivers of white onion on top), fatty tuna and uncooked sweet shrimp (amaebi) the best, then maybe uni and yellowtail (hamachi), but I'm open to most sushi (other than rolls, which I eat less frequently…

Oh, lord. Those 'feet'. Those shin pouches. Rob Liefeld?

I enjoyed but didn't outright love Hobbit the First (in an 'Unexpected' trilogy), though I understand the criticisms some have lobbed at it over the film's tone or format. I do, however, remember not particularly liking the theatrical cut of Fellowship: I felt like there was a lot of back-slapping and crinkly smiles…

I think experience tells us that America is willing. So. willing. Futurama is set to test the waters with its next season, and who knows? Maybe The Simpson's infinite monkeys can slip up and make a great season through the mysterious workings of probability.

I've never seen this episode, but if what you just described isn't highly entertaining in its awfulness, then Chris Carter is some sort of wizard.

Keeping to scripted, not-anthology shows, with stories either serialized, situational or a mix), but not necessarily genre shows (you would have specified that, trying to succinctly describe the many long-running shows of sorts you probably do not mean to include is tough), South Park, maybe Rugrats and Sponge Bob…

The back-and-forth between Padawan and Master relationship reminds me of my experience listening to Rush's 2012 album Clockwork Angels. As a teenager in the eighties and early nineties, I was a fan during Rush's transition from a band that was at the peak of its powers and relevant to a band that remained a live…

R.I.P. Mako

Any run-through of the Star Wars films at my house that includes the prequels includes Tartakovsky's Clone Wars. Sometimes I skip the first two altogether and start with Tartakovsky. Absolutely I would love to see him given his own corner of the expanded universe. Much as with Joss Whedon and the upcoming…

My real objections are that This particular story has been done to death recently (not that it's a classic story or a classic Disney film), and that it would probably be a piece of crap. I think we can trust that Guillermo del Toro will be doing something interesting with the material, and it feels like the angsty…

I have a soft spot for Kitty Pryde. For me, she was the first fully human, female comic book heroine that felt as fresh and real as Peter Parker. She had normal human insecurities, was not overly sexualized and didn't seem to reflect either misogyny or a forced attempt to work out the role of women in a changing…

I think Arthur C. Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey was finished alongside Kubrick's adaptation of the material. Scott Pilgrim was only partially finished (though early volumes had been published) when work started on Edgar Wright's film version. In both situations there was actually some material from the adaptation…

Now, I'm as cynical about internet 'facts' as anyone, but I love to see someone willing to dig a little rather than just deciding to believe or not because of what they prefer to be true. This, in combination with the youtube video posted by someone else does seem to make SenseiMonkeyboy's claims highly plausible.

There was a time when that was definitely true. The original Pinball FX tables are mostly unplayable today, whereas there were some very nice tables in the Gottlieb collection. Nowadays, both groups are putting out excellent tables, and they are having success by filling different niches. Any hardcore fan follows both…

Absolutely, I didn't mean to imply that women are the only ones who suffer from the aggressive gendering. Maybe, if we worked on *one* thing to tell our kids about education, personal ambition and the world of work, we would come up with something better to say. On this, it should be said, there has been much progress…

I don't believe I assessed blame, except for those who refuse to see any problem... and, I guess regarding Sony, in a counterfactual hypothetical. I pretty clearly indicated that at the hiring and promotion level (I do think there are sometimes problems there, but it varies from organization to organization. Many…

Medically, 'narcotic' is a hazy term, but usually refers to opiates. Legally (in the U.S.), the term actually refers to the illegality of a substance or its misuse, not its pharmacological properties. Where I live, used medically and with a prescription, neither use of the word would apply. The "intensity of the…

You know what, a big component of defining addiction/abuse is harm. It sounds like Mr. CandyFLIP is self-medicating where there is no real pharmaceutical drug that addresses his condition. If it is true that his ability to engage with the world has improved (whereas the opposite was true for Mr. Scimeca), then I fail…