The television scene is miles scarier in the Japanese version because, as far as I can recall, it's the only CGI effect. Up to that point the movie has restricted itself to practical effects and atmosphere, and the ghost crawling out of the TV violates the whole level of reality that's been established.

Session 9 really doesn't have much going for it beyond being filmed at the creepiest abandoned hospital in history. But the hospital was torn down not long afterwards, so the filmmakers deserve some kind of special commendation from UNESCO for creating a permanent record of how unbelievably scary-looking that place…

My son was less than a year old when I watched "The Babadook" and it messed me up. I didn't find it scary so much as deeply troubling and depressing. It hammers on a lot of common parental fears: What if my efforts to nurture this small person are screwing him up? What if I'm powerless to protect him and I might as…

Same here, and yes, it was almost a relief when the gollums showed up.

I recently re-watched "The Blair Witch Project" too, and I agree: it's still one of the best found-footage movies, if not the best. The efforts to make it as "real" as possible (the dialogue was ad-libbed, the actors weren't given more than a rough outline of what would happen to them, they really did camp out in the…

I fretted about what to do with the Bush tax refund, but then I never got mine, so it was a moot point.

The Jem comic book is the most fun thing ever.

I entered that contest! Even at the time, knowing nothing about Ayn Rand except what I was reading in The Fountainhead so I could write the damn essay, it seemed weird that scholarships somehow fit into the Randian ethos. To this day I suspect that either a) there is no scholarship, or b) it goes to the student who…

The second half drags, but the first half is some of the best dumb fun you can have at the movies.

And it pays subtle homage to this trailer: https://www.youtube.com/wat…

Dammit, I knew what this would be and I clicked on it anyway. That trailer has haunted me all my life.

"Real Life" is pretty brilliant. It's a sendup of reality TV back when the only source material was the PBS series "An American Family." I also love "Lost in America," but the rest of Brooks's movies don't do it for me. He used to do hilarious shorts on SNL too.

I happened to be in Japan when Inglorious Basterds came out. I noticed the Japanese advertising focused on Shosana, with the Basterds as background characters, which is a much more accurate depiction of the film.

In terms of the universe aligning for my personal benefit, this is up with seeing James Urbaniak and Colin Hanks perform scripts from "The Adventures of Pete and Pete" with the original cast. I'm not ashamed to say I wept freely.

In my experience, guys who argue "but the male characters are idealized too!" tend to freak out when presented with images of male heroes that have even a hint of sexualization.

The best part is that it's not a metaphor or anything. It is literally the story of a man who mistook his wife for a hat.

I loved this book as a kid. I think it was my introduction to the concept of a narrative voice; a lot of the humor and charm come from Annabelle's flip, conversational, very 70s tone. I can quote the first sentence from memory— "You're not going to believe this, nobody in their right minds could possibly believe…

Goodbye Charlie. It was indeed the basis for Switch, and was also a 1960s movie with Debbie Reynolds and Tony Curtis.

Plus, puppy mills Lannister the hell out of popular breeds to get the maximum purebred puppies. A lot of dog breeds that went through a trendy period have weird health problems and crappy temperaments from inbreeding. Dalmations are a mess.

Obviously a chimp that's also an MMA fighter beats a regular MMA fighter.