Stateside (review)

Anyone who writes and identifies oneself to others as a writer will invariably face this situation one day: A distant relation or a slightly annoying coworker or the guy sitting next to you on the plane who won’t shut up will insist that his life (or that of his uncle or grandmother or best friend’s dogwalker) is simply fascinating, and here’s the deal: He will tell you the story and you, the writer, will write it up, and you’ll both split the profits.

Rhinoceros Eyes (review)

This is your brain on film school; this what happens when film students urgently determined to “be artistic” and “make a statement” are allowed near Final Draft and a camera. Or maybe this is just what happens when the director, Aaron Woodley, is David Cronenberg’s nephew, a close enough relation to think he shares some … more…

The Irish R.M.: Series 1 (review)

It’s one of the most anticipated selections from Masterpiece Theater to hit DVD, and it was well worth the wait. In 1897, British army major Sinclair Yeates (Peter Bowles) resigns his commission to accept the post of Resident Magistrate in West Ireland, and while his beloved Philippa (Doran Godwin) is happy to make the move … more…

Dead Like Me: The Complete First Season (review)

Blame HBO and its hugely successful Six Feet Under for starting a fad in undead hip. Not quite a ripoff, the Showtime series Dead Like Me nevertheless spins a cynical, unsentimental angle on mortality and nondenominational religious fantasy into something attempting insight on contemporary attitudes about life and death, and manages to hit every imaginable … more…

Breakin’ All the Rules (review)

Breaking all the rules? Which ones would those be, exactly? The ones about comedies being funny? Romantic movies being romantic? Movies about relationships having some kind of insight into human nature? They’re broken, all right. If one movie could prove once and for all that dating is a blight on humanity, this dismal, depressing flick … more…

Shrek 2 (review)

I mean to say: *Shrek,* which won the first Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film a coupla years back, and I’m tempted to think the category was invented just so that film could win it, was pretty damn brilliant, and *Shrek 2* is even better. Who does this in Hollywood? It’s enough to kindle a tiny spark of hope in me that there’s a handful of people with some heart and soul in that town, the evidence of the likes of *Van Helsing* and *Ella Enchanted* aside.

Troy (review)

You’ve heard the story, surely, about how the face that fled an ancient city was so beautiful that a fleet of a thousand ships was launched to go after it? Yup, as we suspected all along, that most beautiful of faces belonged to none other than Orlando Bloom.

Oliver Twist (review)

Poor old Oliver Twist — his nearly two-hundred-year-old misery never fails to be relevant, and so he’s doomed to be resurrected every decade or so for the edification of a new generation. This elegant British production — which aired in the U.S. on PBS’s Masterpiece Theater and here is packaged with that series’ introductions — … more…

Gilmore Girls: The Complete First Season (review)

Is it churlish to suggest that one of the most beloved and popular dramas currently on television is really kind of dull? The domestic and romantic adventures of the Gilmore girls — 32-year-old Lorelai (Lauren Graham: Seeing Other People) and her 16-year-old daughter, Rory (Alexis Bledel: Tuck Everlasting) — are deliberately positioned as “family programming,” … more…

Broken Lizard’s Club Dread (review)

Not so much as a movie as a “Girls Gone Wild” video with the occasional slasher murder thrown in for fun. It’s island of the brain-dead as horny guys and silicone-enhanced gals romp at a tropical resort — sample pick-up line: “Wanna get nailed?” — until a mysterious figure with a machete starts offing the … more…