New Moon – Movie Review

It’s difficult to be disappointed with a movie that gives you exactly what you expect. Going into New Moon (the second in the highly successful book, now movie, franchise known as The Twilight Saga) it was not surprising that half the movie would be spent on looks between attractive teens prone to longing and melodrama….

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Sci-Fi TV – Fall 2009

While the fall tv season started strong, it was not really because of new science fiction shows. Several of the new series that fit that bill delayed their starts until October and November, so as an addendum to my Fall TV reviews, I want to talk about them here. Sadly I don’t have much good…

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Where The Wild Things Are – Movie Review

I can’t say that I really understood Where The Wild Things Are when I read it as a kid. Sadly, 30 years later, I can’t say that I understand the new Spike Jonze directed big-screen adaptation of this children’s classic either. While the visuals were great, and the characters (especially the Wild Things themselves, of…

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Zombieland – Movie Review

Zombieland is hardly a zombie movie. Sure, there are throngs of the undead (a zombie-making virus struck down the entire planet — take that, H1N1!) who are happy to disembowel people for fun and snacking; but they don’t appear for large chunks of the movie. This is more of a post-apocalyptic, survival, road movie mash-up….

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Fall TV 2009 – week 3

Week 3 of this year’s fall TV premieres was a doozy! While it’s nice to see the networks returning to the kind of concentrated premiere schedule that kept me glued to the TV during my youth, I have to say that I put my Tivo and timeshifting to the test. To make things a little…

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The Informant! – Movie Review

Seeing the trailer and premise for The Informant! (plus the tongue-in-cheek exclamation point), I expected Matt Damon’s character to be goofy and bumbling (Paul Blart: FBI snitch), but leave it to director Steven Soderbergh to pull off an interesting and thought-provoking character study laced with odd, retro humour. (Is it my imagination, or do the…

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Fall TV 2009 – week 2

After only one week, my first Tivo casualty of the new season is The Vampire Diaries. I just couldn’t keep caring about the teenage melodrama if they didn’t give me more interesting supernatural stuff. The vampire storyline was way too cliche. Fringe It was probably too much to ask to have a season premiere that…

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Fall TV 2009 – week 1

Summer is fun and all, but nothing beats the start of a new fall TV season. This year has many returning faves, but also a large batch of promising new series. Most premieres are slated for later in the month, but Fox and the CW have taken the lead with some hype-worthy starts. Glee For…

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