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Judging from recent box office results , we're all either in the mood for mindless comedy or anything in the horror genre. (In fact, judging from all the horror films that have opened in the past few months, low-budget horror is apparently a license to print money.) Last week was Scary Movie 4 (comedy making fun of horror, so it scores bonus points), this week Silent Hill . Last month, Madea's Family Reunion (for TWO weeks) and Big Momma's House before that. And Hostel kicked off the year in grisly horror fashion. Meanwhile, satire is limping along, with Thank You For Smoking going into wide release (and nobody noticing) and American Dreamz opening in 8th with under $4 mil in ticket sales. And let's not even discuss V for Vendetta which, while not in the satire vein, was arguably in the "challenging preconceptions, try to make you think a little" camp. This was one of the best movies I've seen so far this year, so the fact that it's made less th...

On the drive in to work today, I saw this bumper sticker… "Jesus died for you so he wouldn't have to live without you." Now, aside from the logical disconnect between "died for you" and "live without you", isn't this—I don't know—an incredibly self-centered appeal? "You're so important that Jesus died to save you"? Doesn't that run counter to the whole humility thing that's always been stressed in the sermons I've heard? It being LA, I can understand such an ego-driven appeal, but still, it does seem a little… arrogant.  

White House shake-up touches McClellan, Rove Admittedly, it's not "Karl Rove Resigns," or "Karl Rove Indicted," or "Karl Rove Consigned to the Seventh Cirle of Hell" (all right, so you're never going to see that last one, but I can hope karma works, can't I?). Still, the fact that Karl Rove is no longer handling policy has GOT to be good news, right? We can only hope.  

I got a wild hair this evening and started organizing and cataloging our books. Dani and I, being voracious readers, have enough books to qualify for library status, and keeping track of them is, frankly, impossible. But, since I've found myself re-buying the same books several times recently, I figured it couldn't hurt to at least keep track of the ones on my shelves… the ones I either haven't read or are among my main interests. While digging through the stacks, I came across a few that begged for comment… When I, Robot came out on DVD, the copy I picked up came with a copy of The Illustrated Screenplay , by Harlan Ellison. Yes, I bought the DVD. I actually found the movie entertaining, especially the climactic battle at USR. You just need to keep in mind that the movie bears about as much resemblance to the source material as a James Bond movie does to the book it shares a title with. Of course, the irony here is the thought of Ellison's screenplay being bundled wit...

Is it REALLY just me? I mean, judging by Rotten Tomatoes rating , it sure seems that way. (I do see that Roger Ebert not only doesn't fall for it, but also has some of the same criticisms I have. I always knew he was a good critic.) But seriously… what are they seeing that I'm missing? Or maybe it's what I'm seeing that they're not? (I guess now is the time to shout out SPOILER WARNING!!! If you haven't seen this movie yet, and have any interest in seeing it, go away now . I guarantee I'm going to ruin it for you.) The sad thing is, I was really along for the ride for about the first 100 minutes (give or take). Looks like we've got a good caper film in the works, there's lots of questions as to how they're going to pull it off, what they're actually pulling off, who gets what in the end… everything you'd expect and want from a movie like this. But then we get to that last half hour (give or take). The hostages are freed, the police are t...