Last Monday, I reviewed the majority of what the Academy Awards considered the best documentaries of 2012, and yet…I don’t think a one of them would have made my list. Only The Invisible War would even be close. So what would make the cut? Runner-Up: Mansome…Morgan Spurlock’s dissection of what makes a man in the…
Category: Mindless Mondays
TV Reviews: Bates Motel, Top of the Lake, and the Finale of Deception
Bates Motel…The latest evidence that people will tell any story as long as it’s not a new story. The idea that the teenage years of Psycho’s Norman Bates (a character that first became a part of pop culture in 1960…and hasn’t evolved or strengthened his reach on it since) would be fascinating to anyone has less to…
“The Good Wife” Only Portrays Black Women as Antagonists
The Good Wife is supposed to be set in Chicago (it’s really filmed in New York) and is a pretty realistic depiction of politics and power in that city. And yet…black recurring characters are few and far between, odd for a city that is known for having a strong base of African-American influence (Obama said…
TV Review: “Girls” vs. “Enlightened,” Why the Wrong One Gets All the Buzz
It’s an age-old question: girls vs. women, bubbly young girls vs. mature wizened women, HBO’s overrated but buzzy “Girls” vs. HBO’s underrated but struggling-to-avoid-cancellation “Enlightened,” about a woman trying to live a deeper, more meaningful life. As you can already tell, I’m firmly in the “Enlightened” camp, and yet things look pretty grim for the…
Movie Review: The Incredible Burt Wonderstone
Honestly, there’s a part of me that feels so bad for this Steve Carell-Jim Carrey flop (that opened and died at the box office this weekend) that I’m tempted to take it easy on it. After all, it has some decent laughs, a pair of good supporting performances, and is clearly made with more heart…
Movie Review: Snitch
This movie came out a month ago, and so nobody probably cares about it at this point, and I can’t really blame them, but don’t despair, there are plenty of new articles coming today. What Works: This action-“drama” starring none other than The Rock (in his “serious actor” mode, which feels even more patently fake…
Why “The Following” Is The First Show to Make Me Question Media Violence
Over the years, I’ve always rolled my eyes whenever people bring up media violence being too extreme. I grew up during The Matrix/Natural Born Killers/Doom era where anyone and everyone seemed like a potential school shooter if they enjoyed a Terminator film. All of it seemed overblown to say the least. So I never thought…
TV Review: Law and Order’s Clever Chris Brown/Rihanna Episode
[I know this episode aired a couple weeks back, and the statute of interest has expired, so I’ll keep this brief.] Law and Order, Special Victims Unit, episode “Funny Valentine”…I found the recent and highly-publicized riff on the Chris Brown/Rihanna case to be exceptionally clever, and enjoyably melodramatic (was the acting good? No, but Chris…
TV Reviews: The Big Funeral on “Dallas” and the Court’s Decision on “The Staircase”
Dallas…I’ve never seen a single episode of the original Dallas, but I’ll miss J.R. Ewing, who unquestionably made the first season of TNT’s reboot better and stole most of his scenes in the second season. Larry Hagman’s J.R. is a textbook example of a villain so iconic, he’s actually the hero. [Who would really want…
Movie Reviews: Jack the Giant Slayer vs. Oz the Great and Powerful, Which is Better?
It now seems like Hollywood makes only one of two movies nearly every weekend, and it’s either the R-rated action movie starring a faded actor (Dead Man Down with Colin Farrell, Bullet to the Head with Stallone, Die Hard 5 with Willis, and whatever that movie was with Schwarzenneger a few weeks back) or an…
Entertainment Editorial: Reviewing This Year’s Best Documentary Nominees
[Note: There’s no review of The Gatekeepers since, well, I haven’t seen it. It’s also the only one still in theaters, so it’ll be the hardest to get access to for the majority of people who’ll miss these films until they hit Netflix or Redbox.] Searching for Sugar Man…This was the winner of the Best…
Mom Jokes: Psychology and Law
A guy asked a girl in a library, “Do you mind if I sit beside you?” The girl answered with a loud voice, “I DO NOT WANT TO SPEND THE NIGHT WITH YOU!!!!!” All of the students in the library started staring at the guy. He was very embarrassed. After a couple of minutes, the…
TV Review: “Fashion Star” and “Grimm” Are Back…But Are They Better Than Ever?
Fashion Star…All of the old problems (overstuffed episodes, noisy-as-hell runways that overpower the clothes, too many contestants for us to really keep track of them, routine picking of the wrong designer to go home, unhelpful advice from the mentors, etc.) are still there, but now they’ve added a couple. They’ve white-washed the gorgeous H &…