Yes. And per my comment above, sort of an anti-Scully style. I think he's maybe become a little self aware, but he doesn't seem to prize "professionalism" above all else.

I never much cared for that guy from mad tv who used to do the impressions (without any actual funniness)…Sasso? But the thing where, as Madden, he'd suddenly sorta just do a rumbly wordless sound in the middle of a sentence when he got worked up was good stuff.

I can tell you, not universally. Like Bill James, I prefer the sloppy, emotive style of a Harry Caray to the pleased-with-my-own-measured-tones style of Scully. That's essentially the style you're getting with Buck and his endless modern ilk.

Yeah, growing up in Indiana, I became a big dodgers fan when they were in the nl west with the reds largely because of him. Rooted for them because their winning would make brennaman unhappy, and my fandom stuck even after realignment. (The catch is that unhappiness only exacerbated his douchiness.)

He was listing three of his favorite things about football Sundays.

It was oddly comforting to hear dan dierdorf being dan dierdorf right to the end of his career. I guess we've all been there: he said something he immediately had to know was stupid, but instead of saying never mind, he kept talking as if he could ramble his way into making it make sense. Dan, we'll miss you.

Good point…though I hope you weren't being molested by satan when you wrote that.

Makes sense. And he's right in that regard. I think you and I probably are thinking of the same instance of him recalling, years later, being asked about Lennon's murder. (Maybe it was an interview on the previous dvd of Nashville). The way he said it ("I said, 'Well, why didn't you listen to my warning?'") didn't…

I remember that quote too…though to be honest, I always found it most valuable as a reminder that Altman, though a great filmmaker, wasn't immune to self-important bullshit.

(edited this a little for clarity, fwiw)

I agree with that. Ultimately I do think it's just "all is not well." My "alternate" possibility for what it signifies isn't so much that it's a dream per se, as a fantasy. (I killed some people, and that's exactly what won her respect!) But yeah, the it's-a-dream thing is generally pretty hackneyed as a reading.…

I guess. But if a reviewer's job is to give an honest review of a show, there has to be a point where he or she stops writing generally about the artist's overall career and forthrightly addresses the show itself. This seemed like an extended dance around an opinion he didn't want to state: This particular show isn't…

Who knew Charles Bronson was such a delicate flower?

What I've always wanted to figure out is what that weird little blip means, if anything, when the film speeds up and the soundtrack goes from music to a sort of electronic scree while he looks in the rearview mirror. Just that all is not well, I guess…which would at least suggest it's not a dream. But I've always…

So does this review mean we're not QUITE at the stage where the AV Club is allowed to pan Patton Oswalt? Or is this the pan that dare not speak its name?

Fair enough. I guess I just feel that those who do love it seem to have a pro forma approval of it. It does indeed have elements of a fun-sounding movie, but it just feels like it got credit for having those elements rather than doing anything interesting with them. Too self-conscious by half, I guess? The Moody…

Tell that to the Bowden family.

So nice to find someone else who doesn't get the big deal about Drive. Well stated. And when it comes to exercises in style, I'll take Soderbergh's Haywire any day.

Most important, this is the movie that gave us a glimpse of Iggy Pop playing pool exactly as you would think Iggy Pop would play pool.

Why exactly do you tell your cat how stupid Tom Cruise is? And why does he hate it so much?