HBO’s early advertising for John from Cincinnati, last year’s new series from David Milch (Deadwood, NYPD Blue), called it “surf noir”. That’s not an easy genre to visualize. Raymond Chandler set in the underbelly of the surfing culture? It sounded intriguing, and then the series premiered and it actually turned […]

The final episode of The Wire wasn’t greeted with the same publicity as last year’s Sopranos finale. Nor was it met with the same controversy after it was over. But for the loyal fans it was a gripping, frustrating, and occasionally heartwarming end to the best series on television. An […]

After extensive viewing of his body of work, I have come to the following conclusion:  If you don’t love Will Ferrell, there is something wrong with you.  I’m not here to judge or anything.  It doesn’t necessarily make you a bad person, though it certainly could be a tiebreaker.  If […]

Remember 2002, when Hayden Christensen caused the nation, perhaps the world, to lose interest in Darth Vader? He’s back, and he’s doing his best to make teleportation seem boring! Jumper could, in theory, have been good. When I saw David Goyer’s name among the writers, I thought it stood a […]

Wristcutters:  A Love Story is one of those movies that almost panders to the not-especially-lucrative EJ demographic.  It would have completely flown under my radar, except that it features performances from Tom Waits, who I love more than oxygen, and Will Arnett, who I love more than the actual concept […]

I had planned to write a piece connecting “Cloverfield” to J.J. Abrams’ other work. I assumed that there would be either thematic or literal ties that I could work with. And then I saw the movie and found out it was completely absent of father issues, numerology, characters named after […]