The boss and family just departed for a ten-day canoeing trip to the boundary waters in northern Minnesota. The cat's away, and this mouse is going to . . . work. I'm once again pretty much running the business in the absence of the chief. That's really not so difficult, though.

But I'm not working this weekend, of course . . . 
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The Ghosts of Movie Past

In the past few days, both Ingmar Bergman and Michelangelo Antonioni have died. I'm ashamed to say that, even though their films are regarded amongst the finest ever made, I've not seen any of them. I must change that. Maybe Amazon and/or the Criterion Collection will have some sort of commemorative sale. Anyway, Moriarty ( Read more... )

Saw a 12:03 screening of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix last night at the Kerasotes 16 on the South side. I'm exhausted, but I'm happy I saw it nonetheless. I want to see it again as soon as I can, actually - and not just because the projector got out of alignment for a good few minutes during the crucial final sequence (I missed the ( Read more... )

Okay . . . I don't get it, iPhone buyers.

Why would you pay a premium for the first generation of a new gadget? You know they're going to improve in quality and come down in price in a year or two. You're buying something without even the opportunity to test it, or to have just about anyone else test it, since Apple has divulged so little ( Read more... )

I bought Apocalypse Now on DVD a few months back, the new Complete Dossier version with both the original and Redux versions on it. I'd never seen the film in its entirety; it was just one of those I had a feeling about, so I went ahead and made the purchase.

Why I have waited so long to see this film I have no idea. It is one of the greatest I have ( Read more... )

The great music collection transfer continues. I uploaded all of my movie soundtrack CDs today, and that's no small amount of discs. (There are a smattering of Broadway recordings among those, I guess.) I'm a recovering film score junkie - okay, not sure how much I've really recovered - and I've managed to amass quite a collection. There are dozens ( Read more... )

There's been quite a lot of text flying around online, on a message board I post to devoted to Indianapolis theatre, of all things, concerning the subject of Rosie O'Donnel and her departure from The View. In fact, it seems like lots of people who have their hands on much more powerful media have been talking a whole lot about it.

I'm on the outside ( Read more... )

Way back in 1979, after having spent a ridiculous amount of cash on Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Paramount execs insisted that all the effects shots they paid for be put in the final cut of the film, so they'd feel like they were getting their money's worth. (Mind you, they had one of the greatest editors who ever lived - Robert Wise - directing ( Read more... )

Arrr, etc.

I wasn't the biggest fan of the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie back in '03, but I enjoyed it. Much like my first viewing of The Matrix, I went into it with zero expectations - how does one have expectations of a big-budget movie based on an amusement park ride? I think the only precedent to it was another Disney effort, The Country ( Read more... )

With Batman Begins, Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale gave us a Batman who really could scare the crap out of criminals. So, who can scare the crap out of Batman? Apparently, it's this guy (behind cut for those allergic to spoilers):


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