This Is No Laughing Matter
Last night I was leafing through Neil Zawacki’s book How to Be a Villain (yes, it was a gift; no, it wasn’t from a disgruntled reader who thinks I’m well on my way) and ran across a section titled “The Evil Laugh—A Must-Have.” Zawacki calls the evil laugh “a defining characteristic of any supervillain,” and […]
A Lasting Footprint
I never met Neil Armstrong. Honestly, I’d have a hard time recognizing him without his spacesuit on. And when he died Saturday at the age of 82, I couldn’t remember what he looked like for a while, not until I went online to get a little refresher: After all, most of my memories of the […]
Movie Monday: Spending (a Little) on The Expendables
Last weekend, seven films earned $10 million or more at the box office. This weekend, one did. Yep, summer must be almost over. The Expendables 2—a bombastic tub of bullets, explosions and really bad dialogue—claimed its second straight weekend win. But looking at the box office estimates this week, that’s not saying a whole lot. […]
The Ringtone of the Times
My youngest daughter started college this week. We got a call from her last night, and she gave us the full rundown of her classes: the ones that look fun (Latin American History), the ones that look boring (French). She was excited to sneak into a needed biology lab, even though her credit hours are […]
Movie Monday: The Expendables 2
Subtlety? Art? These are not the things a summer movie is typically made of. In the dog days of August, sometimes folks just want to see a big, dumb hound of a flick. And let’s face it: The Expendables 2 is as big and as dumb as they come. Featuring Sly Stallone and basically every […]
A Reflective Sort of Post
I hated mirrors as a kid. Really hated them. When I was about 5, I heard an old-timey radio episode of The Shadow in which the faces of the dead would appear in a spooky ol’ mirror, and from that moment, for 15 years I refused to ever—ever—sleep alone in a room that had a […]
The Olympics Are Over. Were You Impressed?
“The bad news is that the Olympics are over,” fellow Plugged In critic Adam Holz proclaimed yesterday. “On the up side, Shark Week is here!” And really, the two television spectacles (the Olympics a sporting staple for NBC, Shark Week an annual obsession for fans of the Discovery Channel) are more alike than we might […]
Movie Monday: The Bourne Legacy
After three weeks at the top of the box office, Batman finally met his match: A chemically enhanced killer with a distaste for authority. No, no. We’re not talking about Bane, the big meanie from The Dark Knight Rises. We’re talking about Bourne. Or, at least, the dude’s legacy. The Bourne Legacy (which actually isn’t […]
Movie Monday: Dark Knight Makes It a Dynamic Three-o
It’s said that the rich get richer. And while that may not always be true—the rich could hypothetically blow their richness during an ill-advised weekend trip to Vegas—it seems to be the case with Gotham’s richest billionaire playboy. The Dark Knight Rises collected another $36.4 million this weekend, according to studio estimates. While that might […]
Olympics Fever: Catch It or Wash Your Hands?
My family’s been in the throes of Olympics fever the last few nights. We saw that weird baby rise up during the opening ceremonies, watched poor Jordyn Wieber break down after failing to qualify for the women’s gymnastics all-around, cheered my home state hero Missy Franklin (she goes to high school in Aurora!) splash to […]