Read more at D.J. Bigalke’s blog It appears that we’re predisposed to be engaged by certain movies over others. This doesn’t mean that we like or enjoy them more, just that they can hold our attention. An article over at National Geographic breaks down the findings. According to James Cutting, a cognitive psychologist at Cornell [...]

Or perhaps this was a measured attempt to get hipsters to quit bashing the franchise. Ha, good luck to them, though it’s unlikely to happen. This has already been demonstrated by the froth despite the many, many photographs of the stoned age couple out and about, eyelids never above half-mast, and hipster looks they generally [...]

A $23.4 million opening weekend for what had been widely billed as the major comedy event of the summer seemed a tepid shrug of a reaction, and certainly not in line with the expectations and media buzz preceding it. But it won the weekend, however weak the competition was, and there remained room to suggest [...]

From the slightly annoying to just plain excruciating, with audio corrections by Amber L: 5. Bruschetta – acceptable Often incorrectly said as: broo-shheh-tuh or broo-shhkeh-tuh How to say it: broo-SKEH-tah A minor offense, because to Anglo eyes it certainly looks like a SHH sound should be in there. A reasonable person can look at the [...]

Yeah, looks like it. Amidst today’s news that the author of The Ice Man, the chilling profile of prolific hit man Richard Kuklinski, has axed a film adaptation over the production team’s choice of star, bland b-boy hunk (or is it punk?) Channing Tatum (a true WTF if there ever was one),  these new snaps [...]

Woody Allen is one of the most well-respected writers and directors in the last fifty years of American cinema, but not much is said of his acting. Well, not a lot great things, that is. He’s often criticized for “playing the same character” and not branching out. This is unfair. His mannerisms may be consistent, [...]

Continuing with stand-out performances from this year, we move along to another Saturday Night Live alumni. For years, Sandler worked on SNL and in several “comedies” as an idiot man-child and quickly became one of the biggest box-office draws in America. Never once did Adam Sandler show even a glimmer of any dramatic capabilities. Then, [...]

When you hear those two names, what do you think of? TV’s “The Office” and “SNL.” Yet, when the these two appeared as the young couple searching for a place to raise their unborn child in Sam Mendes’ Away We Go, they created one of the most realistic and relatable couples to ever grace the [...]

Hang your heads in shame, racist Facecrackers. From SF Weekly: “Last week, a study showing that older folks have flocked to Facebook was all over the news. But word of an even more provocative trend waits in the wings: white flight from MySpace to Facebook. Self-styled social media pundit Danah Boyd [...] compared the exodus [...]

James Cameron’s forthcoming magnum opus Avatar has been a highly guarded secret ever since we first heard of it a whopping 12 1/2 years ago now. It’s been speculated over and endlessly rumored, and no amount of digging could uncover its secrets. This kind of crush, naturally, leads to extremes in expectations. Especially when we [...]

I started freelancing full-time in 1982, during the depths of the recession you were sweating out working at a lumberyard, and I have earned more than $100,000 a year as a freelance writer for 26 consecutive years. Last year, I grossed $500,000, as I did the year before that. I tell you this not to [...]

Since she first appeared on the scene in 1994, presented as a fragile, lovely rosebud whose petals were still tender and dew-kissed, Liv Tyler has maintained a presence that belies her origins as well as her career in the interim.

This luminously bleak but achingly humane Nicholas Ray noir is built around a late Humprey Bogart performance that may well be his richest and deftest. His tortured screenwriter Dixon Steele, by turns violent and vulnerable, charming and ugly, is the best argument against anyone who opines that he just coasted on his well-worn tough guy [...]

It’s been a slow year for standout films, but Duncan Jones’ resourceful and eerie Moon is the best 2009 release yet seen, as well as the most thoughtful and compelling sci-fi film in many years. Applying some of Soderbergh’s Solaris gloss (which smartly classes up the shoestring effects) to the disorienting claustrophobia of ’70s sci-fi [...]

I can’t stop thinking about this film. It’s not perfect, and there are a few brief parts of the film that fail terribly, but the gist of the film is simple, brilliant, and increasingly relevant today. Peter Sellers is remarkably restrained and heartbreaking as the gardner Chance, a sweet, polite, middle-aged man with a severe [...]

The world has gone ga-ga over Wall-E, Pixar’s ninth animated feature. We respond.

 Fred Zinnemann (United Kingdom, 1966)   “Why Richard, it profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world… but for Wales?” To what lengths would you go to maintain a principle, a belief?  Sir Thomas More sacrificed his own head for refusing to betray his conscience.  His unparalleled steadfastness and nobility in [...]

Tomas Alfredson (Sweden, 2008) A vampire film that doesn’t just deliver blood, but heart as well. What really distinguishes the film from other vampire movies is the touching moments that occur between the two central characters: Oskar, a blond 12-year-old boy who gets bullied a lot at school, and Eli, a girl with dark hair [...]

Edgar G. Ulmer (USA, 1934) This is the first time that Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi starred together in a film. After a bus accident, a newlywed couple vacationing in Hungary are taken to the home of a mad architect (Karloff) by their travel companion, a psychiatrist, who they met on a train (Lugosi). Soon [...]

It would be very difficult for the Coens to top “No Country For Old Men”, and they didn’t. I mean, we see a film that has the Coen Brother’s name on it and it’s usually going to equal gold. These guys are amazingly talented, but I wouldn’t say this is anywhere close to their best [...]