The Reviewings
Bolt (7.7 out of 10)
Let the Right One In (8.2 out of 10)
Twilight (4.3 out of 10)
Entries Tagged as 'movies'
Who Watches The WATCHMEN?
You. You should watch the WATCHMEN.
Reviews: They Still Happen
Here’s an onslaught of my reviews from the past several weeks. I’ll try to be more timely with them in the future, but if you just can’t wait (and hey, I don’t blame you), you can always go to Collider.com and read them there.
Changeling (4.4 out of 10)
Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (4.7 out of 10)
Max Payne (2.0 out of 10)
Pride and Glory (1.6 out of 10)
Quantum of Solace (6.0 out of 10)
Role Models (7.8 out of 10)
Slumdog Millionaire (9.5 out of 10)
Synecdoche, New York (3 1/2 huhs? and a whaaa?)
Zack and Miri Make a Porno (7.9 out of 10)
I Disagree, Mr. Ebert
Roger Ebert laid out a few rules a couple days ago on how movie critics should behave. While I quibble with some of his rules (”Trailers”) and others are painfully obvious (”Provide a sense of experience”) and a couple are just tedious, (”Do the Math”, “Sit Down, Shut Up, and Pay Attention!”), the one I take issue with is the following:
No autographs! If for example, you are at a press event and interviewing a star, the stars are old hands at this and will think of you as a species of bottom-feeder if you ask them for an autograph. Your fellow professionals will try to pretend they are in another room, and gossip scornfully about you in the buffet line. It is bad enough they have to make a meal out of more of this god-damned shrimp without their being being associated with you. Either you are moronic enough to desire an autograph after having had the opportunity of speaking with the star in person, or you hope to sell it on eBay. It is doubly reprehensible if a star asks you for your name, and you reply, “Just your signature will be terrific!”
Of all the stars I’ve asked to autograph something for me, none have ever rolled their eyes or had other professionals in my room openly disdain me for it (and if there are those who do, so be it; that’s their issue). I don’t think there’s anything moronic about wanting an autograph just because I spoke with a star. Yes, interviews are neat but I accept that A) I’m not a great interviewer and B) the star will probably have heard the question before. Furthermore, I don’t ask for autographs from every star I meet. If there’s a special movie or TV show, I will ask an autograph for that because I want that star to know that I appreciated that work and I’m appreciated them in it. If they take affront to that, then again, it’s their issue and not mine. Being a detached critic if all well and good but if you can’t be a fan from time to time, then you may need to check your love of cinema.
Thus, my autographed copy of The Graduate, signed by Dustin Hoffman, is one of the priceless things I own and I treasure it greatly. It’s not only my favorite film of all-time signed by one of my favorite actors of all-time, but it’s a memento from my very first junket. And when I’ve managed to grab an autograph for my brother or a friend, it’s me taking the opportunity through my work to show my love. If that means I don’t meet Roger Ebert’s level of professionalism, so be it. I know my code of ethics for my job and it’s never let me down.
Matt’s Great DVD Sale - Got a Fiver?
As our economy strains, I’ve found myself looking for alternate revenue streams as the job market shows no sign of improving in the near future (although the search for permanent employment continues daily). Thus, I’ve decided to sell off about half of my DVD collection. It will be going up on eBay but before I decided to offer it up to the world unknown, I’d like to give first crack to my friends and family, partially because I like you so much and partially because it means I get the money faster and don’t have to deal with shipping.
To answer your questions:
1) Yes, all the DVDs are in excellent condition. Some of their cases may be roughed up from my various movings over the years, but the DVDs all work perfectly. They were not used as coasters, frisbees, or plates.
2) If there’s a title you hate, assume I got it as a gift.
3) If there’s a title you love and are wondering why I would part with such a classic, I would like to show you my checking account balance.
4) Most of these titles are $5 because it’s a nice round number, I believe it to be a fair price, and the government has not come through with a bill for $4.99. Of course, all prices are negotiable.
5) If you have any questions, just shoot me an e-mail at matt AT goldbergblog DOT com.
Now, on with the list!
12 Monkeys: Collector’s Edition - $8
28 Days Later: Widescreen Special Edition - $6
300: Two-Disc Special Edition - $10
A Clockwork Orange - $4
A Fistful of Dollars - $5
A Life Less Ordinary - $5
A Mighty Wind - $5
A Series of Unfortunate Events: 2-Disc Special Edition - $8
A Simple Plan - $5
A.I.: Artificial Intelligence – Two-Disc Special Edition - $5
About a Boy - $5
About Schmidt - $5
Accepted - $5
American Beauty: The Awards Edition - $5
An Evening with Kevin Smith - $5
Angel: Season Five - $10
Angel: Season One - $10
Animal House: Double-Secret Probation Edition - $5
Assault on Precinct 13 - $5
Bad Boys - $5
Batman Begins: Two-Disc Deluxe Edition - $5
Batman: The Animated Series – Volumes One through Three (sold together or individually) - $10/ea, $20 for all three
Be Kind Rewind - $5
Bee Movie - $5
Bill & Ted’s Most Excellent Collection - $10
Black Hawk Down: 3-Disc Deluxe Edition - $8
Bowling for Columbine: Special Edition - $5
Brick - $5
Bring It On: Collector’s Edition - $5
Brotherhood of the Wolf - $5
Bubba Ho-Tep - $5
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season One - $5
Capote - $4
Chappelle’s Show: Season One - $5
Chappelle’s Show: Season Two - $5
Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle – Unrated - $2
Closer - $5
Cloverfield - $7
Club Dread - $2
Crank - $6
Dark City: New Line Platinum Series - $4
Dave - $5
Dr. Strangelove: Special Edition - $7
Eastern Promises - $5
Election - $5
Euro Trip: Unrated - $4
Family Guy Presents Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story - $2
Family Guy: Volume Three - $7
Fantastic 4 - $5
For a Few Dollars More - $3
Four Brothers - $4
Frequency - $5
Friday Night Lights: The First Season - $8
Garden State - $5
Gattaca - $5
Get Shorty: 2-Disc Collector’s Edition - $5
Ghostbusters 1&2 - $4
Gladiator: Extended Edition - $5
Gladiator: Signature Selection - $5
Glory - $5
Gone Baby Gone - $5
Hero - $5
Hill Street Blues: Season One - $5
Hitch - $5
Hotel Rwanda - $5
House of Flying Daggers - $5
House: Seasons One through Four (sold together or individually) - $15/ea or $45/all
I Heart Huckabees: 2-Disc Special Edition - $5
In the Line of Fire: Special Edition - $5
Inside Man - $5
Jerry Maguire: Special Edition - $5
Jersey Girl - $5
Just Friends - $4
Kingdom of Heaven: 4-Disc Director’s Cut - $10
Kung Fu Hustle - $5
Land of the Dead - $5
Legally Blonde: Special Edition - $2
Little Miss Sunshine - $5
Live Free or Die Hard: Unrated - $5
Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels - $2
Looney Tunes: Back in Action - $2
Lord of War: 2-Disc Special Edition - $5
Magnolia: New Line Platinum Series - $10
Mean Girls - $5
Meet the Parents: Bonus Edition - $5
Million Dollar Baby: 2-Disc Widescreen Edition - $5
Minority Report - $5
Mission: Impossible - $5
Mr. & Mrs. Smith: Unrated - $5
Murder My Sweet - $5
My Cousin Vinny - $5
Napoleon Dynamite - $5
Notes on a Scandal - $5
Ocean’s Twelve - $5
Office Space: Special Edition - $4
Once - $6
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest: Two-Disc Special Edition - $10
Over the Hedge - $5
Panic Room: Special Edition - $8
PCU - $5
Peter Jackson’s King Kong: 2-Disc Special Edition - $3
Peter Pan - $3
Pitch Black: Unrated Director’s Cut - $3
Platoon: Special Edition - $5
Primary Colors - $5
Quiz Show - $5
Rain Man: Special Edition - $2
Reno 911!: Miami – Unrated - $5
Reno 911!: Reno’s Most Wanted Uncensored - $5
Requiem for a Dream - $5
Reservoir Dogs: 15th Anniversary Edition - $8
Rocky Balboa - $5
Roger Dodger - $3
Rumble in the Bronx - $5
Schindler’s List -$5
Shattered Glass - $5
Sideways - $5
Signs: Vista Series - $5
Sin City: Recut, Extended, Unrated - $7
Sleepy Hollow - $5
Smokin’ Aces - $5
Snatch. - $5
Sneakers - $5
Southland Tales - $5
Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace - $2
Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones - $3
Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith - $4
Stardust - $4
Stranger Than Fiction - $4
Straw Dogs - $4
Stripes: Extended Cut - $5
Super Size Me - $5
Superman Returns: Two-Disc Special Edition - $5
Swimming with Sharks - $5
Swingers - $5
Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby – Unrated and Uncut - $5
Team America: World Police –Uncensored and Unrated - $5
Tenacious D: The Complete Masterworks - $7
Terminator 2: Judgment Day – Artisan Extreme DVD - $5
Thank You For Smoking - $5
The Aviator: Two-Disc Special Edition - $7
The Big One - $5
The Blues Brothers: 25th Anniversary Edition - $5
The Chronicles of Riddick: Unrated Director’s Cut - $5
The Crow: Collector’s Series - $5
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart: Indecision 2004 - $8
The Fifth Element: Ultimate Edition - $5
The Fog of War - $5
The Fugitive - $5
The Girl Next Door: Unrated Version - $5
The Good Shepherd - $5
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - $5
The Hurricane: Collector’s Edition - $5
The Italian Job - $5
The Jerk: 26th Anniversary Edition - $5
The Kingdom - $8
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou: The Criterion Collection – Special Edition Two-Disc Set - $8
The Nines - $5
The Office: Season One - $5
The Others: 2-Disc Collector’s Edition - $5
The Prestige - $5
The Quick and the Dead - $5
The Quiet American - $5
The Ref - $5
The Rules of Attraction - $5
The Rundown - $5
The Sandlot - $5
The Shining - $5
The Silence of the Lambs: Special Edition - $5
The Simpsons Movie - $7
The Terminator - $5
The Truman Show: Special Edition - $5
The TV Set (autographed by director Jake Kasdan) - $6
The Weather Man - $5
The Woodsman - $5
There’s Something (More) About Mary: Widescreen Collector’s Edition - $5
Top Secret - $5
Training Day (autographed by writer David Ayer) - $6
Unforgiven: Two-Disc Special Edition - $10
Vanilla Sky - $5
Wag the Dog - $8
Waiting… - $5
What About Bob? - $5
When Harry Met Sally: Special Edition - $5
Who Framed Roger Rabbit: Vista Series - $5
Wimbledon - $5
Wordplay - $5
Das Reviewsen
Five flicks, five reviews:
Appaloosa (5.0 out of 10)
Blindness (7.9 out of 10)
Flash of Genius (4.3 out of 10)
Rachel Getting Married (7.8 out of 10)
Religulous (7.5 out of 10)
Diablo Cody vs. The Haters
While I know this news is a couple of days old, I felt I had to share some thoughts about Diablo Cody’s recent missive where she fires back at all those who have retaliated against her for being successful. It’s a very strong statement and one I encourage you to read.
However, it seems to slightly dodge one important issue. While Cody seems to be retaliating against the obvious jealousy of the “Film_Fan78″ variety of internet fanboys, she doesn’t seem to really go into the amount of sexism she’s facing and then kicking in the face with one of her patented kung-fu kicks.
Sexism, for those that are wondering, is NOT disagreeing with women or even disliking a woman. I feel like I have to clarify this point because our news media and political campaigns seem to fail on daily basis on the definition of “sexism”. Here’s a very simple test for determining sexism: if the circumstances were the same except the subject in question was a man and not a woman, how would you react?
And the truth with Diablo Cody is that she would be the new geek god. If Juno had been written by a man and from the perspective of Bleeker’s character, Juno would probably be hailed as one of the current crop of classic geek films and fanboys would be drooling at her next projects rather than leaving us mature people to do the heavy lifting and get excited for Jennifer’s Body and The United States of Tara.
But there is a flip-side to this article and it’s going to be odd because I’m criticising a criticism of a person’s critics. We are truly through the looking glass.
Sometimes, you just have to let your critics go. Her entire article, for me, is the very reason, you don’t respond to the haters. Even if they were legitimate critics (and I have no doubt that there are about half of them with the words “sophmore slump” already macro’d into their Microsoft Word simply because God forbid anyone be as successful as Cody on their debut film), you have to let them go.
I once received an e-mail from a gentleman who was upset about my negative review of his independent film. It was a straight-to-DVD film, I reviewed it for one of the sites I was working for at the time, and thought that was the end of it. But this gentleman felt the need to seek me out and explain how hard he had worked and that I was reviewing a bastardization of his vision, and so on and so forth.
And I simply explained to him and as I will explain to Ms. Cody right now, don’t waste your breath. The way you rise above your critics is by leaving them behind. You can accept their criticism, study it, use it, or discard it, but if you engage it, then you’re lending it credence. Cody is clearly a million times more successful than those who try to diminish her accomplishments, but this isn’t a case of throwing one good punch against a schoolyard bully and he’ll leave you alone. This is one of those instances where she should have written all this out and then never published it, not for her privacy but so that it doesn’t give the pricks the satisfaction of knowing they got under her skin.
Cody just needs to keep doing her thing and eventually the haters will shut up because success speaks for itself. I’m greatly looking forward to Cody’s upcoming projects and hope that she’ll remain above the fray in the future since she’s already above most of us already.
Movie Review: Burn After Reading
This is what you’re going to go see this weekend. Enjoy.
Burn After Reading (8.7 out of 10)
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I Like Traffic
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I Like Stuff
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I Like XBOX 360
