Category: Movies/TV Reviews

  • Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)

    I liked it. I enjoyed the Oompa-Loopa songs and spectacles. Altogether the film was creepier than the 1971 movie but not as cruel. True, Johnny Depp screaming at Mike Teevee to stop mumbling was funny but nothing beats Gene Wilder screaming at him You should open your mouth a little wider when you speak! The […]

  • Spy (BBC)

    Anybody catch the reality TV show Spy from the BBC? It is playing on our PBS station. 8 individuals undergo espionage training in the middle of London. Fun watching.

  • Land of the Dead

    I like how Romero morphs the zombie metaphor into a new commentary with each iteration he does. Night of the Living Dead was his response to the madness of the Vietname era. I’m not sure what the second movie was about. The third riffed on consumerism and mass marketing. This fourth movie in his oeuvre […]

  • Batman Begins, War of the Worlds, National Treasure, D.E.B.S.

    Might as well put them all in one post: National Treasure: Yes it is as awful as you suspected. Attempts to be Da Vinci Code swapping religious iconography with cloying patriotism. Never thought I’d hear the words Declaration of Independence so many times in one film. Sucks. Don’t rent it. Luckily we only paid 99 […]

  • American Dad

    I’m really enjoying the new show American Dad. It seems like a logical evolution of American identity. Homer Simpson is an Ugly American and not conscious of it. With American Dad, the father doesn’t even care who he offends with self-righteous, racist, narrow-minded glee. Anyone else laugh when Karl Rove came in as Emperor Palpatine? […]

  • Hearts and Minds (1974)

    During the height of the opposition to the United States involvement in Vietnam, director Peter Davis unleashed this startling documentary. Blending reports from the front lines, the protest movement, soldiers returning home, rows of silent Vietnamese watched solemnly as their villages are burned to the ground, POWs speaking at schools and even a high school […]

  • Boogeyman

    Most of the reviews for this movie notice the same thing I did. I always thought it was spelled Bogeyman – or was originally spelled as that. But you can’t count on illiterate Americans to know shit about shit so they went the easy way. Hey Maw – yew wan’ go see that Beau Gee […]

  • Hijacking Castastrophe :: 9/11, Fear & the Selling of American Empire

    To balance out our viewing of the second Bridget Jones movie, I selected this sobering documentary. The film takes you from 1992 when the neo-conservatives first proposed their faith in unliateral military action and were laughed out of Washington to their gradual ascent to power and now the execution of their worldview of American Empire. […]

  • Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

    Updated: Gave last month’s cast – sorry! Audio entry. Still gotta move this whole GD blog into WP 1.5.1 so I can get podcasts automatically generated. Summary: George Lucas should never attempt to write dialogue ever again. Jedi remains my favorite. I feel for Yoda.

  • Yes, Dear

    Why am I watching Yes, Dear at 12:30 in the morning? I think it was the four classes of ice tea + the victory milkshake at dinner. I always try and watch this show but good God it is so horrendously awful and unfunny. I can almost hear the careers of the cast plummet as […]