Category: Movies

Some friends and I were going to catch a sneak preview of the disaster flick Day After Tomorrow, but we got there too late and the theater filled up. Still in the mood to see a movie, we instead saw this enormous pile of stinking shit: Van Helsing. Seriously, Paycheck was so much better than ...

Just finished watching Paycheck, unfortunately. I knew it wasn’t going to be good, based on the reviews, but still: sci-fi, Philip K. Dick story, heck, I don’t even mind Ben Affleck. And actually, those elements (and Paul Giamatti!) were the good parts. The bad part was the director. I’ve never seen any of John Woo’s ...

I’ve been a subscriber of Netflix since its early days, and I’m sure the company loves me: I typically have one or two (or even sometimes all three) DVDs out for more than a month, depending on how busy I am. If I counted every penny, I should probably cancel my subscription and save some ...

This week I’ve enjoyed A weeklong�journal from�a writer in Los Angeles, a series of dispatches in Slate written by British writer Toby Young. I was surprised to learn that the Cheescake Factory rates highly among restaurants (this coming from a former food critic), and that good Hollywood paprazzi work more surreptitiously than what we expect. ...

The Academy Award nominations were announced this morning, with 11 nods going to Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, 10 to Master and Commander, and zero to Nicole Kidman. Pleasant surprises: Keisha Castle-Hughes for Whale Rider, and Bill Murray for Lost in Translation. I imagine that LotR will take Best Picture, though I ...

I’m in San Francisco for the week following Macworld Expo while my wife attends a business event thrown by her company. It didn’t make sense for me to fly back to Seattle when she was coming down here, so we hooked up and now I’m the Hotel Husband while she goes off to work. Nonetheless, ...

Yes, there’s more on television than war coverage, but I can’t turn on the TV without checking out CNN or BBCAmerica. But tonight is the Academy Awards, which promise to at least be something different. I know, I could also turn the TV off, but since hostilities in Iraq, I’ve found myself copelled to watch ...

I’m on a flight from St. Louis to Seattle, where the flight crew has announced that tonight’s movie is the James Bond flick Die Another Day. I have an article to finish, so I won’t be watching the movie all the way through, but I do want to watch the beginning (also known as “the ...

The New York Times has an interesting story about the state of feature animation, notably the “old style” Disney version (hand-drawn) versus the “new style” Pixar version (computer-generated). It’s a tough field right now, with lots of talented artists getting laid off because people are more eager to see shiny new CG films like Shrek, ...

I knew my interest in Hollywood and love of coffee would converge someday: I just got a free latte for identifying the source of this quote! I never said all actors are cattle; what I said was all actors should be treated like cattle.