Netflix’s somewhat-overpraised sensation House of Cards is back and the internet giant sure has gotten cocky in the space between. Before House of Cards first season, Netflix had Lilyhammer…Now, they’ve been nominated for Emmys, had two shows that were on every critics Best of the Year list (the other being “Orange is the New Black”),…
Category: Mindless Mondays
Jimmy Fallon’s First “Tonight Show”…Great, If You Love Bland
I have a deep, dark secret. I have a secret that would make me such a social leper I can’t tell anyone about it. The truth is: I don’t like Jimmy Fallon. I know, I know, I know I’m supposed to. I know that Fallon’s too-genial, toothless brand of comedy is supposed to instantly endear him to…
Jay Leno’s Final “Tonight Show”
I’ve never been a big Jay Leno fan, and I actually found it hard to watch The Tonight Show the last few years as ole lazy-joke Leno made more or less the same 10 jokes every night (OJ’s guilty, Clinton likes sex, hyuk yuk yuk). I can’t say Jimmy Fallon is any better though, but…
TV Reviews: Rake, and Black Sails
Time to start rolling out the midseason shows… “Rake” comes on Fox Thursdays and feels like it probably won’t be around next year or maybe that’s just wishful thinking on my part. It stars Greg Kinnear as a “sleaze bag” lawyer with a very messy personal life and that’s pretty much it. The real problem…
Movie Review: Philomena
This is a tough movie to grade and review because I was left with so many mixed emotions. It has the wild tonal shifts of a Tyler Perry movie (verbal comedy one minute and rage-inducing melodrama the next). It doesn’t quite feel real (I never really bought the odd-couple friendship of Judi Dench’s too gullible character and…
Movie Review: Nebraska
I love Alexander Payne (the director of contemporary classics “Citizen Ruth,” “About Schmidt,” “Election,” and “The Descendants”). So why don’t I love his latest film? It has, once again, gotten him nominated for Best Director. And it has, once again, been nominated for Best Picture. It is also, once again, centered around people we don’t…
Every 2013 Movie From Worst to Best!
165 movies were seen by me in 2013, and now it’s time to list what I thought of them all, below is the worst, the mediocre, and the absolute best of 2013! As always, just because two films share the same letter grade doesn’t mean they’re equal, and the rankings reflect how I would stack…
Every Movie I Watched in 2013 From Worst to Best!
165 movies were seen by me in 2013, and now it’s time to list what I thought of them all, below is the worst, the mediocre, and the absolute best of 2013! As always, just because two films share the same letter grade doesn’t mean they’re equal, and the rankings reflect how I would stack…
Monday Morning Movie Reviewer: The Phenomenal “Her”
Most people know “Her” as “that movie where Joaquin Phoenix falls in love with his computer,” and it may technically be that, but it’s also a terrific movie that has more to say about relationships in general than just an obscure, slightly-sci-fi angle. What Works: Roonie Mara gets the most out of her brittle beauty…
Serious Movie Roundup: “To the Wonder,” The Reluctant Fundamentalist,” and “Una Noche”
We’ve done foreign film roundups and anti-rom com roundups, and if it seems like I’m really struggling to find a common theme for these movies, well then…it’s because I am. Although technically, The Reluctant Fundamentalist and Una Noche could be considered immigrant stories, and, hey, even To the Wonder has a quasi-immigrant story in a French woman…
Movie Reviewer: “Inside Llewyn Davis” Another Self-Righteous Coen Film
Everybody is pretty much over and done with this Oscar-ignored Coen Brothers film, so what better time than now to force you to read about it? I mean, what could be better than reading a mixed review of a film that has technically been in theaters for two months and nobody cares about anymore? What…
Movie Review: The Past
Did I enjoy this super-slow foreign language movie from the slightly overpraised Iranian director of A Separation? No. Do I think you will? Also no. This is one of those films that’s critically heralded because of its real flaws: it’s slow, it’s almost ludicrously somber and self-serious, every member of the main cast looks like they should…
Foreign Film Round-Up: “The Hunt,” “The Square,” “Vehicle 19”
Yes, I did get a weird kick out of grouping an Oscar-frontrunner for best foreign film (The Hunt) and a nominee for Best Documentary (The Square) with a Paul Walker car chase movie. The Hunt…This drama stars Mads Mikkelson as an honest small-town teacher whose life is destroyed by a completely-fabricated claim of molesting…