@avclub-e95a45d0b1f5afdf0ab9cde82b4b1d06:disqus The question is, how good a president would Robert Redford have been?

They're the fiercest killers in the insect kingdom.

@avclub-7f538a2a6877984c16a663af38fb84d3:disqus If those were the primary issues that the Religious Right spoke out on, I'd have no qualms (well… fewer). But they seem more interested in legislating on reproductive rights, gay marriage, school prayer, and "creation science" based on their own narrow interpretation of…

I don't much care for the book, either.

No Shelob in Bakshi. An oblique reference to her by Gollum ("She might help us!") and a setup for that to happen (Sam and I talking about a "long, winding stair"), but no actual giant spider action. Just us walking off into the distance.

I haven't read the book, but I thought it was a pretty good movie. The ending went on too long, though (I know, I know, I should talk).

It tanked because they sold it as "the next LOTR," which the books are emphatically not. Also, Chris Wietz is no kind of serious fantasy director.

Really? I thought the fight felt cartoony and not at all tense. I know they had to tone it down slightly for the kiddies, but in the book it's so raw and brutal and violent and… well, animalistic, which is kind of the point.

That movie was worth it just for the "I Want You" segment. Such a perfect surreal nightmare. The rest was striking in parts, muddled as a whole.

Have you seen Tilda in We Need to Talk About Kevin? Outstanding.

Nice.

Yeah, he directed it: http://motionographer.com/2…

But, see, she was really really ridiculously good-looking.

I know why Gugino wasn't cast: they needed the Laurie actress to play her as a teen and 20-something in the flashbacks, and gorgeous though she is, Gugino can't pull that off. Ackerman was the right age, she just didn't have the right acting chops.

From Hell was very Umberto Eco-y in that way.

Eh, I'm not clamoring.

In fairness, I totally pictured that shot in slo mo when I read it in the comic.

But that was absolutely sublime. It's just that the same approach doesn't work in every case.

Cutting out the opening crawl would have gone a long way toward making it more interesting and suspenseful. Like, if you thought it actually took place in prehistoric times at the beginning, the sudden appearance of modern-day kitschy artifacts would be a major WTF reveal, instead of a kind of tepid development.

So you're saying that Tom Robbins is, you know, for kids?