Rectified may be more of a miniseries than a series but The Sundance Channel has promoted it so heavily, you’d be forgiven for thinking they have high hopes for its commercial prospects. It follows a man who has just recently been “freed” from death row (he’s not fully exonerated, just released from jail…the DA could…
Category: Mindless Mondays
Movie Review: Oblivion
Elegant, sleek, and more than a little generic. What Works: This may be the first post-apocalyptic movie to ever be called “cozy.” There’s a relaxed, leisurely rhythm that goes perfectly with the very hi-tech style (just wait until you see what the actual villains are…to call them non-terrifying would be understating it). Tom Cruise and…
TV Reviews: The Season Finales of Dallas, Go On, Archer
Dallas…My guilty pleasure show (I know, I know, it’s not quite up to the Shakespearean excellence of Toddlers in Tiaras, but still). A show I never thought I would like, but, against all odds, I really do. The season (and possible series) finale saw the Ewings scrambling to defeat their powerful enemies, most notably Harris…
Mom Jokes: Tax Day
WHEN NASA FIRST STARTED SENDING UP ASTRONAUTS, THEY QUICKLY DISCOVERED THAT BALL-POINT PENS WOULD NOT WORK IN ZERO GRAVITY. TO COMBAT THIS PROBLEM, NASA SCIENTISTS SPENT A DECADE AND $12 MILLION DEVELOPING A PEN THAT WRITES IN ZERO GRAVITY, UPSIDE DOWN, ON ALMOST ANY SURFACE INCLUDING GLASS AND AT TEMPERATURES RANGING FROM BELOW FREEZING TO OVER 300 C. THE…
Book Reviews: How to Get Filthy Rich in Fast-Rising Asia, We Live in Water
Note: Two books that experiment with narrative, both looking (on the surface) like something wildly different than novels… How to Get Filthy Rich in Fast-Rising Asia by Mohsin Hamid…This clever novel takes the form of a self-help business book, a popular hybrid usually written by some rich-guy/scam-artist that promises to make people rich through…
Book Reviews: The Andalucian Friend, The Burn Palace
Two books, two thrillers, both of them better than average, and both with a snake on the cover… The Andalucian Friend by Alexander Soderbergh…An unassuming nurse treats (and falls for) a patient that just so happens to be the heir to a notorious Spanish crime family currently in a fight for its life against…
Book Reviews: The Twelve Tribes of Hattie, Bringing Up the Bodies
Note: Both of these books are from last year, so I won’t review them in-depth. Most people who will read them probably already have, BUT don’t worry, I’ll have reviews for several newer titles throughout the day… The Twelve Tribes of Hattie…Nearly perfect. It follows “the African-American experience” through Hattie and her children and…
Roger Ebert: A Great Champion of Movies, Interracial Couples, and Cancer Victims
Last Thursday brought the devastating news that the country’s most iconic film critic, Roger Ebert, had passed away after announcing only the day before that his cancer was resurgent. It’s hard to explain the impact Ebert had on movies, but he has unquestionably had the most influence over the shape of film criticism over the…
Movie Review: Jurassic Park…3D
3D doesn’t add much to the experience of the original Jurassic Park movie, but I loved it as a kid and wanted to see it in theaters again… What Works:…Turns out, the real draw is seeing that T-Rex wreaking havoc on the big screen nearly twenty years later. In the 90’s, nobody could craft a suspense sequence…
Movie Review: The Host
Stephanie Myers (the Twilight author) strikes again. One of her books is the basis for this poorly received sci-fi film except that a lot of the same legions that stormed the theaters for Twilight didn’t show up to see this movie. That’s what really matters since nobody would much care what a critic thought of…
Movie Review: “G.I. Joe: Retardation”
I didn’t expect much from G.I. Joe: Retaliation…and it sure didn’t deliver much. I hated the first movie, and, if anything, this one is even worse. Joseph Gordon-Levitt doesn’t reprise his villainous role, and Channing Tatum is in it for a total of ten minutes. [They supposedly held the movie’s release by a year so…
TV Review: Season Premieres of “Mad Men” and “Vice”
Mad Men…This episode starts off deliberately disorienting, throwing us for a minute as we try to figure out exactly what’s changed for all the characters since we last saw them more than a year ago. Time has certainly passed for our core group (only Don and Pete look exactly the same) but not much internally. Don…
TV Review: “Hannibal” #hannibal Season Premiere (Bonus Review of “The New Normal” Finale)
Hannibal…I was as skeptical about this show as I am any obvious cash-grab or “adaptation” of already popular characters (a la Bates Motel, A&E’s new show following America’s other most notable serial killer), but Hannibal is a bit different for two reasons: 1. The source material has already been shamelessly exploited by Thomas Harris, the…