...you’ll recommend me.

At the suggestion of reader Dokeo, I’m trying a little experiment in building traffic and word of mouth for the next couple of weeks. I’m asking regular readers to forward to their friends their favorite FlickFilosopher.com post from the past week. These are some of my own favorites, if I may make so bold:

continue reading "if you love me..." »

Every week my browser gets cluttered up with tabs for stuff that I stumble across and figure I might be able to use as a Question of the Day or a WTF Thought for the Day or grist for some other post. And inevitably, I end the week with most of that material unused. But there’s no reason to let thias stuff go to waste: I can still share it with you, for your amusement, and start the new week with a clean slate.

Herewith this week’s leftover links, in no particular order:

continue reading "Kirstie Alley’s Scientology diet; the Tinseltown closet; Tina Fey, sex goddess: leftover links" »

continue reading "watch it: the 3/20/10 weekly address from President Barack Obama" »

What chain restaurant serves the worst food?

One of the worst meals I’ve ever had in my life was in an Olive Garden. I generally try to avoid all fast food and chain restaurants, but I was traveling and I was hungry and options were limited. Now, I know better that sometimes, it’s preferrable to be hungry.

Come the Mad Max afterscape, Olive Gardens wll be low on my list of places to plunder.

You?

(This weekend’s question comes from the conversation-starting game Table Topics: Not Your Mom’s Dinner Party Edition [Amazon U.S.].)

(If you have a suggestion for a QOTD/QOTW, feel free to email me. Responses to this QOTW sent by email will be ignored; please post your responses here.)

“There is a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.”

I have no idea what this ad is selling, but it cracks me up every time:

We know how it is: You’d like to go to the movies this weekend, but you’re on the run from cops, criminals, and your ex-husband the bounty hunter. But you can have a multiplex-like experience at home with a collection of the right DVDs. And when someone asks you on Monday, “Hey, did you see The Bounty Hunter this weekend?” you can reply, “No, I found plenty of other hateful romantic comedies to enjoy, so to speak.”

continue reading "March 19: DVD alternatives to this weekend’s multiplex offerings" »

Friday fun! Here’s a screen capture from a DVD... and just to make things harder for 2010, this one is from a TV show which may or may not be in my collection (it’s sooo much easier to do screengrabs now that Netflix is streaming to my computer). Guess the TV show -- you don’t need to guess the episode, just the show -- and earn the respect of me and your fellow FlickFilosopher.com readers. One guess per comment -- no fair hogging all the guesses.

Creative Repo

I’m not a muse. I just work for them. My little joke. My wife the muse never found it funny. “Please tell me I didn’t fuckin’ inspire that,” she snarled the first time she heard me say it. Of course, she had. Now she’s my ex-wife. But still my best client.

“Christ, have you seen what these assholes are doing with the idea I so generously bestowed upon them?” She didn’t quite throw Repo Men at me -- for which I was grateful, because an enraged muse can hurl something as physically nebulous but as psychically powerful as a story with the force of a tornado -- but she was about to if I didn’t calm her down.

continue reading "Repo Men (review)" »

Take a break from work: watch a trailer...

continue reading "trailer break: ‘I Love You Phillip Morris’" »

Tales of a Seventh Grade Nothing

If your movie based on a series of bestselling kids cartoon books ends up on the big screen feeling like Diary of a Wimpy Kid does -- like a rejected pilot for a Nickelodeon sitcom -- it might have been wise to excise one bit from its opening. Freshly minted middle-schooler Greg Heffley, lamenting his pubertal lot in life, addresses the camera and asks us, “Who wants to see a movie about a kid who is stuck in middle school with a bunch of morons?” Cuz if this is what is on offer, the answer is most definitely “not me.” And apparently not the multiplex screening room full of kids I saw the movie with, who squirmed through the whole thing and didn’t laugh once.

continue reading "Diary of a Wimpy Kid (review)" »

Echoing a question that Jezebel asked earlier this week: Is geek culture female friendly?

The answer, whatever it may be, goes well beyond whether there are lots of women at science fiction conventions (as was pointed out by commenters in this recent thread about how many men are astonished to learn that a woman likes science fiction). Women make up the majority of moviegoers, a larger majority than we are in the general population (as I noted in last week’s Week in Women column), but that doesn’t necessarily mean that Teh Movies are necessarily female friendly.

continue reading "question of the day: Is geek culture female friendly?" »

Though newcomers give it a good shot:

1. Alice in Wonderland: £7.2 million (2nd week; drops 30%)
2. Shutter Island: £2.3 million (NEW)
3. Green Zone: £2.1 million (NEW)
4. Avatar: £.64 million
5. Hachi: A Dog’s Tale: £.44 million (NEW)

(actual numbers, not estimates)

continue reading "U.K. box office: No one can beat ‘Alice’" »

RULES: You’re eligible to win if 1) You have not won anything from me in 2010; 2) You have a U.S. mailing address (no PO boxes); 3) You enter once and only once.

Chloe, the new erotic thriller from director Atom Egoyan starring Julianne Moore, Amanda Seyfried, and Liam Neeson -- is now playing in the U.K. and opens in limited release in the U.S. and Canada on March 26. To celebrate, I’ve got a poster autographed by Egoyan to give away, courtesy of Sony Classics.

Enter by using this link to send your name and U.S. mailing address.

(Watch the trailer.) (Visit the film’s official site.)

ENTER BY: 11:59pm Eastern time, Friday, April 2.

Winners are chosen at random from all eligible entries received.

NOTE: Your email address and mailing address will be used ONLY for giveaway purposes. You will not be added to any mailing lists; you will not be spammed as a result of entering. All entries are discarded at the end of the giveaway period.

I’ve always been annoyed that the subtext of most car commercials is, “If you buy this car, girls will want to fuck you,” but it ain’t even the subtext here -- it’s the text:

A quick look at last week’s box office as we head into the new weekend (this is where losing a day early in the week leaves me -- late late late):

1. Alice in Wonderland: $62.7 million (2nd week; drops 46%)
2. Green Zone: $14.3 million (NEW)
3. She's Out of My League: $9.8 million (NEW)
4. Shutter Island: $8.14 million (4th week; drops 38%)
5. Remember Me: $8.09 million (NEW)

actual numbers, not estimates

continue reading "North American box office: ‘Alice’ magically successful" »

A hard-hitting investigative report leaked to the Mirror recently revealed some outrageous aspects of female sexuality. Kinsey would be shocked:

Facial stubble and a geeky personality are top in a list of women's secret turn-ons, a survey out yesterday revealed.

Truly, this is astonishing news.

Other secret turn-ons to feature in the top 10 include grey hair, wearing glasses and being a passionate supporter of a sports team.

After the jump, some gratuitous photos of David Tennant.

continue reading "why didn’t they just ask, “Would you like to shag David Tennant?”" »

I’m a big fan of James Cameron, but he has to be stopped. If the awesome success of Avatar truly is going to his head like this, an intervention is called for:

Bolstered by his 3-D box office record-breaker "Avatar," the Oscar-winning director plans to sail "Titanic" again, confirming he will rerelease the 1997 blockbuster using the magic of his new favorite technology, 3-D.

"We're targeting spring of 2012 for the release (of a 3-D version of 'Titanic'), which is the 100-year anniversary of the sailing of the ship," Cameron told USA Today.

Titanic in 3D? I can’t wait to see Kate Winslet’s spittle flying out at me on its way to Billy Zane’s face. Oh, wait: yes, I can.

This has been your WTF Thought for the Day.

Take a break from work: watch a trailer...

continue reading "trailer break: ‘City Island’" »

I was flipping around the TV last night and came across a rerun of Bones, which is a show that I usually never watch, but I left this episode on because Loren Dean was in it. (He has an infrequently recurring role as Bones’ brother.) It seemed like, in the late 1990s, that he was on the verge of Hollywood stardom, after roles films such as the underrated Mumford and Apollo 13 (where he affects the most perfect nerd diction as one of the NASA technicians). Or maybe in indies and foreign films after his work in the wonderful The War Bride and Wim Wenders’ The End of Violence. I loved the odd onscreen quality that Dean had, sort of nice boy-next-door but with dark and even menacing undertones -- in fact, that quality of his partly inspired me to write my screenplay Cat and Mouse; I created the protagonist with him in mind.

continue reading "question of the day: What actors who should be working (or working more) make you wonder, Hey, whatever happened to them?" »

Fun for Wednesdays! We look at an image from an upcoming movie or TV show and write snarky, witty, or otherwise entertaining captions for it. No prizes, it’s just for fun.

“Honestly, dudes, I don’t have any spare change”:

continue reading "caption this! image from ‘Clash of the Titans’" »

It was exactly a year ago that the Sci Fi Channel announced that it would be changing its name to Syfy. And much geek angst ensued. Did this mean the network -- a haven for nerds even if it was even then falling down on its apparent stated mission to, you know, present science fiction on a regular basis -- would be moving away from, you know, presenting science fiction on a regular basis?

This week we learned that the answer to this is an emphatic Yes:

LOS ANGELES (AdAge.com) -- A year after the Sci-Fi Channel replaced its name with the more vague and therefore less limiting "Syfy," the network is also broadening its pitch to advertisers.

During its upfront presentation at the Museum of Modern Art in New York tonight, the NBC Universal cable channel will tout a slate of programs less bound to the niche of years past, announcing its first night of reality programming and other forays into science non-fiction content, as well as its growing slate of scripted sci-fi dramas and fantasies like "Warehouse 13," "Eureka" and "Battlestar Galactica" spinoff "Caprica."

continue reading "because Syfy wasn’t kidding when they said they don’t like sci fi" »

(previous: “Dr. Linus”)

There’s no way to “review” or “analyze” or even “discuss” this show on an episode-by-episode basis -- it’s more like you just have to react and try to guess what the hell is going on. So I’m not even gonna try to impose any sense or reason upon it: I’m just going to react. Maybe when it’s all said and done there will be something cohesive to say. Till then...

Perhaps needless to say, Lost doesn’t make much sense while you’re watching it. My ramblings will surely make even less sense if you haven’t seen the episode... and something may get spoiled for you that you don’t want spoiled. You have been warned.

So, here are the thoughts I jotted down, pretty much in order as they occurred to me as I watched:

continue reading "‘Lost’ blogging: “Recon”" »

Don’t be drinking anything while you view this:

It’s an instructional guide on how to be a proper lady!

Minding Manners Kitty learns the right way to use her fork and how to be polite at the dinner table. Streetwise Mama takes Kitty and Mimi downtown. On the way, she teaches the girls important lessons on staying alert and safe. The Magic Bags Kitty and Mimi go to Magic Land and find some magical bags which have the power to create happiness. The Dust Monster Mama encourages Kitty and Mimi to do their spring cleaning by giving them a book on the dust monster. Put On A Happy Place Kitty and Mimi become interior decorators for a day and help a baker turn his dismal bakery into a happy place. The Train To Grandmas House At the train station, Kitty and Mimi learn lessons about safety and how to behave in public.

Because every young girl needs to understand the importance of housework and of making people happy.

I look forward to the cute educational DVD for little boys that teaches them important lessons on how not to be a rapist or a thief who makes women feel threatened when they’re downtown.

Take a break from work: watch a trailer...

continue reading "trailer break: ‘Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married Too’" »

I was baffled by all those who took exception to Avatar on the basis of its somehow being anticapitalist, antimilitary, antiscience, and -- oh noes! -- anti-American. (See here and here, if you want to be baffled too.) It seemed to me that these objectors were saying that destruction and bigotry and horror and selfishness are absolutely inherent qualities -- and qualities to be celebrated -- of capitalism, the military, science, and America, instead of distortions and avoidable excesses of such. Nothing highlights that better than the fact that so many objectors seemed to find it amusing and ironic that, to their eyes, Cameron made an anticapitalist movie for $300 million and is raking in huge capitalistic profits as a result: these objectors do believe, it seems, that there is no excess of capitalism -- up to and including the destruction of another culture in the pursuit of profit -- that should be criticized as wrong, that the excesses aren’t excesses at all.

It seemed to me that these objections say a lot more about what the objectors think about America than what Avatar and James Cameron think about America.

continue reading "question of the day: In what ways is ‘Avatar’ -- and now ‘Green Zone’ -- unAmerican?" »

...except for the web video I’d previously scheduled to run.

The something that had to give is finally this site, at least for today.

Normal posting should resume tomorrow.

obsession: Canadian TV (and film) (because I’m hungry for something new and good)

boyfriend: Esai Morales in Caprica (not so much his character, though: he’s sorta sad and scary)

psyched: Matt Smith’s debut as the Doctor (though I’m dreading it a little, too, like I haven’t since Tom Baker regenerated into Peter Davison... and I was already in love with Peter Davison)

girl crush: Noomi Rapace in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, who rocks like few woman on film have rocked before

dreading: Hot Tub Time Machine (and hoping my boy John Cusack isn’t going to disappoint me too much)

enemy: everyone involved with Our Family Wedding (couldn’t they tell how awful it was?)