One last quick recommendation for great Halloween fun: Old-Time Radio! If you go to www.otr.net, you will find a vast archive of old radio plays. There you will find many season-appropriate spookfests, and to me, the best one of them all is the Mercury Theater production of The Hitch Hiker. The … Continue reading
The greatest overall Halloween movie is John Carpenter’s 1978 Halloween. Of course the topic is open to debate, but probably not that much. To take the name of the holiday itself, a horror movie’d have to be pretty definitive, and this one went as close as it gets. No matter what West … Continue reading
I’m not plagued by all too many irrational fears. Some people are afraid of dogs, or spiders, or clowns. Not my issue. I feel kind of lucky that way. In about three decades, I have probably had exactly that many irrational fears, and I eventually found a way to defeat them all. Here’s … Continue reading
As my good friend reminds me, the new Incredible Hulk movie is now out on DVD. I liked the movie more than enough to recommend it to anyone with any childhood affection for the character. Conflicted hero; big green monsters, widespread property damage = I don’t see what’s to criticize! This stuff … Continue reading
I don’t know about you, but I’m totally wore out on a whole bunch of subjects. Seems like everyone I run into wants to talk politics with me, and it’s been that way for such a long time, and why me, really? Who cares what I have to say about politics? Whose vote … Continue reading
Like the sporadic golfer that I am, I’m slowly working my way out of the metaphorical sandtrap. Which is to say that thankfully, my most recent movie-going experience was a noticeably better one than the one before it. Which is to say that I enjoyed Burn After Reading just a piece more … Continue reading
I noticed that M. Night Shyamalan’s The Happening is out on DVD today. For those who haven’t already had the pleasure, I very much half-heartedly recommend giving this flick a spin. You can read my earlier, slightly more considered and considerate appraisal of this newest movie and the rest of Shyamalan’s work HERE, but … Continue reading
Seems to me that if you want to make it as a writer, sometimes it’s good to have a story of your own, in addition to the one you’re peddling. Backstory sells, you see. I’m thinking, for example, of the legend of A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole, whose mother … Continue reading
Goddamnit. I take no pleasure in my prematurely negative assumptions turning out to be absolutely correct. Believe that or not. There is no joy in Mudville. Checked out a matinee of Righteous Kill. It was a non-event. A non-event, I say. How does a New … Continue reading
Michael Mann is my favorite director. Well, after Sergio Leone, who is clearly the greatest of all time. But among the ranks of living, actively working filmmakers, to me Michael Mann is the top. Since he’s a contemporary of Spielberg, Scorsese, and Coppola, etc., I’m not entirely sure why he’s not routinely mentioned … Continue reading