Four years ago, I made a New Years resolution not to eat fast food for a year. Fast food I defined as any food from a fast food restaurant like McDonald’s, Burger King, Jack-in-the-Box, Taco Bell, etc. Places that have drive-thrus and do not have servers or silverware. Where your food isn’t served on a […]

10. The Wackness

9. Gran Torino

8. Milk

7. In Bruges

6. Snow Angels

5. Rachel Getting Married

4. Let the Right One In

3. The Wrestler

2. Wall-E

1. The Dark Knight
These came in close:
-The Reader
-Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son about His Father
-Man on Wire
-Doubt
-Last Chance Harvey
-Changeling
And when people asked me to recommend a movie that they probably haven’t heard of […]

The worst of 2008:
I didn’t see either of the Friedberg/Seltzer films this year. In 2006 and 2007 they had my #1 spot, and their two releases in 2008 (Meet the Spartans and Disaster Movie) would have been a natural for #1 and #2… where I’m sure they would have placed them had I seen them.
10. […]

Getting to hold that lion cub… it was incredibly soft. I can’t think of anything cooler - even though there were plenty of other cool things in 2008. These are the runner-ups:

Running. I did two races - a 10k and the NYC Half Marathon, which went through Central Park and Times Square. I wasn’t fast, […]

Speed Racer starts off with promise: a bright, trippy kaleidoscope. I anticipated the rest of the film to be like that, but it wasn’t. There are some astonishing visuals throughout the film, but it’s not enough. Moreover, the film is about 50 minutes too long. And it’s obvious which scenes were too long - or […]

Some guys who went to the same film school as me made this movie, not far from St. Louis, with John Heard (first-billed, but in a supporting role), America Ferrara (right before her big break-out in Ugly Betty), Laurie Metcalf, and Raymond J. Barry. It gives Barry and Heard in particular an opportunity to shine. […]

This Oprah-produced inspirational drama came out late last year. It was one of those movies that I felt I should see but didn’t really want to. It got mediocre reviews, but the subject and time period got me interested so I ultimately put it in my Netflix queue. And boy am I glad that I […]

Roman Polanski made some films in Poland before moving to the U.S. (and later France). Knife in the Water was, I believe, his only feature there, and it’s obvious why he quickly moved on to bigger productions. Knife in the Water is a classic thriller in the vein of Hitchcock and Chabrol. Criterion put out […]

I’m among the masses who were disappointed with Ang Lee’s Hulk five years ago. It was such a misfire in so many ways, most notably in that it took itself waaaaay to serious, but The Incredible Hulk is a vast improvement. It’s not as much fun as Iron Man, but this film has hopefully been […]

I’ve been meaning to write about WALL*E for about two months… here it finally is.
I have written before about my love for animation. I love the Disney classics, and while I enjoy most of their recent work, many of them “future classics”, it hasn’t blown me away. I wasn’t crazy about all of the Pixar […]

I still think the title is awful.
Here’s what I gave the previous Indiana Jones flicks…
Raiders: 5/5
Temple of Doom: 4.5/5
Last Crusade: 4/5
This one is 3.5/5. That’s not saying that I’m disappointed. I liked it a lot and was sort of relieved that it didn’t suck. The first review that popped up online was not positive, which […]

It’s no Pink Flamingos or Female Troubles (that one’s my favorite), but like all of John Waters’ films, it has his distinct mark which means it’s worth seeing. Every moment of every film he has ever made are clearly his. I can’t think of many other directors for whom that can be said. Serial […]

This was the second film I saw at Tribeca. If it wasn’t for In the Name of the King, this would be the worst film of 2008. It’s not funny. We get it: People are profiting from the Iraq war. It worked in Dr. Strangelove. If someone wants to argue that it worked in Wag […]

Give me an S. Give me an H. Give me an I… oh, that’s just too obvious. There’s a reason that this 80s cheerleader flick has been forgotten. It’s a typically bad teen sex comedy that’s light on both sex and comedy. There’s also an embarrassing rip-off of that classic dance scene from Flashdance - […]

The casting of Robert Downey Jr. was brilliant. I don’t think Iron Man is all that cool of a superhero, but Tony Stark is. Unlike Clark Kent, Peter Parker, Bruce Wayne, etc. I prefer the scenes in which he’s not in the costume. I saw this at the Thursday night preview screenings (now you know […]

This is the front-runner for worst film of the year (it came out in the US in 2008). The notorious Uwe Boll is at it again. He is called this generation’s Ed Wood. Both directors made awful films but thought them to be brilliant. They were delusional, sad men. The only difference is that I […]

Sort of.
I’ve always dreamed of making a movie with Chevy Chase. And this morning, that dream came true.
Sort of.
My friend Mark was kind enough to bring me along to Chevy’s house, where I operated the boom on a video taping. So, technically, my dream came true. I’ll write more about it when the video is […]