Posts Tagged With movies
Saturday, February 4, 2012 / 1:58 pm
The Artist’s New Clothes
Critics and awards voters get caught up in uniqueness, and we’re left wondering what they’ve been drinking.
by Nathan Walpow
Tags: movies | The Artist
I saw The Artist last night, and while it was an okay movie, I didn’t think it was the grand piece of cinematic splendor everyone’s making it out to be. It was clever, and the acting was good, and I laughed a few times, but … okay, put it this way. When I’m seeing a movie I’m really into, and I have to take a leak, I’ll hold it no matter how uncomfortable I get. With this, when I had to go, I went. I didn’t even run down the endless hall at the Arclight in Manhattan Beach to miss as little as possible.
Now, my tastes in popular culture are often out of touch with the multitudes’. For example, my list of dislikes includes U2, Tom Hanks, and Modern Family. (Okay, and The Office, 30 Rock, and Community too.) But I was with my wife and two other people, and while at least two of them enjoyed it more than I did, none of them thought it was great. Why then is it getting such critical praise and a bazillion award nominations?
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Thursday, January 26, 2012 / 6:00 am
This Job Is a Solid Killer
African Americans in wartime, as depicted on stage and screen and in the funny papers.
by Gary Phillips
Tags: race | Red Tails | movies | stage | comics
This past weekend I was watching the big budget Captain America: The First Avenger on our newish flat screen TV. Set in World War II, I’d seen it in its 3D glory at the cineplex last year, but enjoyed the movie so much I rented it on DVD. For years we’d had this Sony Trinatronic. That much used machine finally gave up the ghost a few months ago, and a trip to the Best Buy in Culver City yielded the bad boy we got now, a Samsung LCD 40-incher. Not only does it deliver a bigger, crisper picture, it’s less than half the weight of the Sony, reminding me just how far we’ve advanced technology-wise.
