A psychiatrist was conducting a group therapy session with four young mothers and their small children. “You all have obsessions,” he observed. To the first mother, he said, “You are obsessed with eating. You’ve even named your daughter Candy.” He turned to the second Mom: “Your obsession is with money. Again, it manifests itself in…
Category: Mindless Mondays
Entertainment Editorial: Does Spielberg’s Name Carry Weight for Younger Audiences?
In a way my nerves answer that question, but Spielberg is (by my own admission) so powerful writing anything remotely unflattering about him is cause to worry. He actually could snap his fingers to ruin someone’s life if they’re in the entertainment industry, so I just have to hope he won’t take this article as…
TV Review: Falling Skies
Continuing our Alien Invasion day takes the genre from the cinema, where it’s exhausted (Super 8, Battle LA, Transformers, Cowboys and Aliens) to TV, where it’s just getting started. Last night saw the ending of the first season of TNT’s Falling Skies, which stands out on the network by being one of only two shows…
Monday Morning Movie Review: Cowboys & Aliens
It’s “Alien Invasion” Day on Alabama Liberal and so that includes a review of this movie which tries to join two genres: alien invasion movies (which have been almost exhausted) and westerns (which have been almost entirely ignored for two decades). I can’t say it’s entirely successful, but I absolutely appreciate the effort. In a…
Movie Review: Attack the Block
Alien invasion week day continues in this scrappy upstart horror film that manages to be more fun and just as scary as Cowboys & Aliens on less than one tenth the budget. In this movie the aliens attack a housing project in inner city London, and our “heroes” are a “gang” of wannabe toughs that…
Movie Review: Another Earth
Continuing Alabama Liberal’s alien invasion day, is a movie that isn’t really about alien invasions. Another Earth is essentially two movies. One of them is a ponderous, unrealistic drama about a young woman (Brit Marling) who kills a man’s (William Mapother) family in a drunken car wreck and then strikes up a relationship with the…
Entertainment Editorial: Do Stars Still Matter?
When I say stars, I mean big name actors. And when I say big name actors, I don’t mean Kim Kardashian. Now this item isn’t meant to ask if actors are still necessary–I still remember all those articles saying actors were now irrelevant in the wake of completely CGI animated movies like Final Fantasy…which promptly…
Monday Morning Movie Reviewer: Captain America
This movie is curious because I remember liking it decently as I watched it, and that’s good. But only two days later I can hardly remember a thing about it, and that’s not so good. It was solid, wholesome, respectable…and just a little bit boring. This movie is so old fashioned it could be one…
Movie Review: The Devil’s Double
This movie should have been better than it was. It’s loosely based (and, to me, very loosely) on the actual life of the man chosen to be Uday Hussein’s body double. It starts around the time of the Iraq/Iran war and ends several years after the first Gulf War. Dominic Cooper plays both the poor,…
Movie Review: Friends with Benefits
I hate this “movie” which is really just an excuse to make money on top of money. First they make money by selling tickets to people but also the film practically pays for itself by some of the most obvious product placement I’ve ever seen in a major film. Justin Timberlake’s “character” in this extended…
Movie Review: Zookeeper
The best thing I can say for Zookeeper is that I didn’t hate it. I don’t know what it says about me that I know Zookeeper sucks but I still found myself thinking it was as good as any of the other movies I’m reviewing today. Although Captain America, The Devil’s Double, and Friends with…
TV Review: Breaking Bad
This review only covers the first episode of season 4 but Breaking Bad is my personal favorite TV show currently on the air right now (not so stiff competition as the heyday of The Sopranos, The Shield, The Wire, Deadwood, Damages, Rome, and Lost are over) so I feel I had to weigh in sooner…
Monday Morning Movie Reviewer: Harry Potter End Game
Harry Potter is the only movie where you’ll find screaming kids and grown men saying “fuck” at the top of their lungs because they can’t get a better seat. The theater I saw it in started leaking heavily during the climax–making it feel like I was watching it in the middle of a rainfall–and no…