But wait, I'm still not convinced that in this movie Kirk will once again be a total badass rebel who doesn't like to play by the rules. Because I don't feel the last two films have done enough to emphasize that aspect of his character. Also, it's nice to see that these people are making jokes and wise cracks, but I'm…

I tend to be a pretty big Macca apologist, but even I would have a tough time justifying this one. Those lyrics speak for themselves - it reads like what somebody who'd never written a song before and had very little musical experience, but was forced to write something as part of some sort of school or office holiday…

I'm all for wider availability of films on actual film, and in multiple formats. And seeing a film shot directly on 70mm (OK, to nit-pick most of them are shot on 65mm and blown up to 70mm), as opposed to just a 35mm film blown up to 70mm, is a truly amazing experience that every film fan should experience. I don't…

The film doesn't really loose its "sharpness." It can get very scratchy or colors can fade (revival prints are particularly prone to this as a handful are struck every few years and get sent all over the USA), but it tends to remain "sharp," i.e. it doesn't get blurrier after multiple showings. What you are likely…

How about wishing I'd never heard of "Star Wars" in the first place? That's what the wall-to-wall marketing campaign is doing for me. All of this build-up and hype reminds me of what happened right before "The Phantom Menace" came out, and we know exactly how that went.

Tomorrow on A.V. Club: "Why 'Hardcore' is the sequel 'Star Wars' fans deserve."

I can tell by the comments here that this show was really beloved by a lot of people, but I have to be the voice of dissent:

Newsflash: Spaceballs has a ton of junior high cafeteria grade penis jokes in it. What did you think it was going to be, "Annie Hall" in outer space?

First the Slate style "let's do an article on something everybody hates that argues it's actually good to generate clicks" piece on the prequel trilogy, then the review of "Spaceballs" from the perspective of somebody who sees the film's primary fault as being too juvenile in its humor (what the hell were you…

" And NOBODY had positive attachments to the Jedi that helped them escape, or made people question their genocide?" Well, then again, our major sources on the Jedi in the 70's and 80's movies are Obi Wan and Yoda, and they're obviously somewhat biased. Nobody else, not even people in the rebellion, seem to have much…

Well, you have a point in that, arguably, "pure" criticism should probably take each work on its own terms and not include helpful suggestions about how the movie might have been made better or more enjoyable, because the fact is this is the movie we got (at least until George Lucas decides to roll out yet another…

The first prequel was a pretty bad movie. You can debate whether bad movies are worth actual hatred or just indifference, but it's still a bad movie. The other two have some good parts, but are overall are pretty mediocre. I mean, they're about on par with all those Star Trek TNG cast movies that pretty much tanked…

Also that it's actually more racist NOT to like the prequels.

Blofeld also has special clothes set out for Bond and Swann to change into for his meeting with them, a clear reference to Dr. No. However, while in "Dr. No" Bond and Honey Ryder arrived at his lair in beach wear that had to be destroyed on account of radioactive contamination, so Dr. No supplying them with new…

"Plus, a 90-minute live comedy show every week is a ridiculously bold endeavor in itself, one whose uniqueness and degree of difficulty is perpetually underrated." Uh yeah, albeit one that is as heavily rehearsed and controlled as it can possibly be, where the ultimate commandment is never go off book, unless you're…

Agreed, I'd say the most compelling aspect of this story is how easy it is for somebody who's attractive and charming (read: sociopath) to get people to throw their common sense out the window and just blindly accept whatever lies they put out there. Even in a profession where everybody's supposed to be a skeptic by…

I think he played the role of smarmy, lying sociopath pretty well. It wouldn't have been much of a leap to have ol' Stephen start knocking off people in an effort to hide his fabrications, if this were a purely fictionalized film. In fact, I even suspect Christensens' skin-crawling portrayal may even be a small part…

If you've REALLY got a lot of time to waste, go to Youtube and look up a few of the other songs people have posted. Youtube allows you to vary the playback speed, but unlike varying the rpms of a turntable, the Youtube player changes the rate at which the file is sampled, so pitch is unaffected. So you can basically…

I think it's fair to say that most of the complaints people have with the Kubrick film are complaints people tend to have with Kubrick films in general. In other words, people who love Kubrick love The Shining, people who dislike his movies tend to dislike his take on the book. Similarly, your reaction to the book is…

Noticeably, A.V. Club appears to have chosen to use the infamous "Bond in clown makeup" still from Octopussey as sort of a dig at Moore. Saying that Moore was the only actor to portray Bond as a clown has always been a nice, clever way to sum up his take on the character, but is too reductive. For example, the…