Existential House Hunt: What Reality TV Has to Say About Faith
Theology, philosophy and reality television would seem to go together about as well as peanut butter, mayo and pickles. I can’t imagine CBS would clamor to stuff a bunch of pastors into the Big Brother house and film them fighting over original sin and post-millennialism. But if you’ve ever eaten a peanut butter, mayo and […]
Movie Monday: Madagascar 3
It was a zoo this weekend at the local cineplex. And I’m not lion. Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted won the Friday-Sunday box office tourney by a giraffe-sized neck, hoofing its way to an estimated $60.4 million take—making its makers at DreamWorks as happy as a hippo at dinnertime. While it opened ever so slightly […]
Oh, Those Golden Oldies
I’ve been on vacation the last couple of weeks in Orlando—searching for alligators and playing cards and spending altogether too much time waiting in line for Space Mountain. But between all that line-standing and ride-riding at Disneyworld, the fam and I did find time to flip on the television to watch a little-known cable channel […]
Movie Monday: Snow White and the Huntsman
Who says we’ve outgrown fairy tales? Sure, our 21st-century culture may be a little more cynical and self-aware. Maybe some of us stifle eye-rolls when it comes to cute, animated forest creatures cleaning out cottages. But audiences once again proved that we’re still susceptible to stories that begin with “Once upon a time” and end […]
What It Means to Be a Twit
I’m officially a twit. That’s what you call folks who use Twitter, right? I’m still new to this thing, so I’m not so sure of all the terminology. I never thought I would join Twitter. I never really saw the point, and anyone who’s read one of my movie reviews knows it takes me far […]
Celebrities Just Seem to Grow on Vines
Ever wonder why there seem to be so many celebrities out there these days? Why every time you go to the supermarket you see about two-dozen different faces plastered across the tabloids? Some might say that more celebrities are just an upshot to our celebrity obsessed culture. Others might point to the myriad entertainment outlets […]
Movie Monday: Avengers Torpedo Battleship
Davy Jones, meet Battleship. OK, so Universal Pictures’ titanic new release didn’t exactly burble to the box office’s briny depths this weekend: It only felt like it. Battleship fished an estimated $25.3 million from weekend moviegoers and floated to a second-place finish—far, far behind Marvel’s The Avengers. Even though Battleship’s already made more than $200 […]
The Series Is Dead: Long Live the Series!
Yesterday, Time’s movie critic Richard Corliss released what he considers to be “The 10 Greatest Movies of the Millennium (Thus Far).” The Artist launched the list at No. 10. Corliss named Pixar’s WALL-E as the best of the best. I love lists like these. It’s great to cruise through things like this and see where […]
A Novel Study in Character
Reading can change our lives—quite literally, according to a new study. Researchers say that literary characters can have a sizable impact on how we think and act. Now, that doesn’t mean that Harry Potter readers are going to start shopping for cauldrons or fans of the book The Hunger Games will stalk neighborhood pets. But […]
Movie Monday: Avengers Sucks Life From Shadows
A few weeks ago, Forbes magazine declared that Tony Stark—a.k.a. Iron Man—was worth a whopping $9.3 billion, making him the world’s fifth richest fictional character (one slot behind The Beverly Hillbilly’s Jed Clampett). If real-world dollars count on this fictional list, methinks that Mr. Stark may be moving up. The Avengers, starring Stark and a […]
