girls at Comic Con! yuck!

I’m not going to San Diego Comic Con this week. I wish I was. One of these years, I will get there. And I wouldn’t be alone, of course: it’s been a long time since fandom and geekness has been a primarily male domain (if it ever was). But you’d hardly know that from the … more…

question of the day: Who the hell is Sam Worthington?

I keep seeing these ads all over New York — on the sides of buses, on bus shelters, in the subway — for Terminator Salvation that give equal headlining billing to Christian Bale and… Sam Worthington? Who? Every time I see one, I can’t help but think, Who the hell is Sam Worthington that he … more…

Titanic (again again) (review)

A film of immense power and eerie beauty, James Cameron’s Titanic could only have been made now, not because of its technical requirements but because the cultural attitudes of the era in which it is set have come full circle to concern us again today.

Titanic (again) (review)

I’m particularly struck by one key to Titanic’s success: repeat business from teenage girls. Usually it’s the boys making testosterone-soaked action movies big hits, filling the theaters for second, third, and fourth viewings…

Titanic (review)

Titanic is one of the best movies I’ve ever seen. If you haven’t seen it yet, stop reading this instant and run out to the multiplex. Titanic is simply a great film — and by *great,* I don’t mean *very good.* I mean *great* as in *epic and profound*…

Starship Troopers (review)

Character Assassination Paul Verhoeven is exactly the wrong man to have made Starship Troopers (starring a bunch of impossibly perfect-looking faux teenagers including Doogie Howser, plus Michael Ironside, Clancy Brown). Set in a future global Earth society that restricts citizenship to those who serve in the armed forces, Troopers follows a group of teens through … more…