Top 15 Magic Babes From Movies & TV

My newest Screen Junkies is article is up, just in time for the new Harry Potter coming out this Wednesday. A tribute to famous magical cinematic and televised babes from years past all the way up through to Hermione. Enjoy and please digg!

Public Enemies (5/10)

“My name is John Dillinger, and I rob banks.” One thing that’s very important to understand about this character is that this isn’t just a statement of what he does. It’s his belief in who he is – Michael Mann’s latest pic focuses mostly on how much Dillinger wasn’t thinking about what he would down the line. He just did it, and did it like nobody else could, at the same time managing to break out of a couple of prisons and gain national acclaim and the public’s respect and sympathy. So if this is the case, why is so little of Mann’s epic devoted to prison breaks, bank robberies, or coverage of how much the public loved him?

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (8/10)

Michael Bay doesn’t so much make movies as try to figure out how to fit a plot in between his ridiculously bombastic action scenes. Some people love him for it, some people hate him, but, he really technically doesn’t make truly good movies. (The Rock and The Island are the closest he’s come). With ROTF, he seems to have outdone himself, both in the amount of action that overwhelms the screen and the head-scratchingly complex story crammed into the lulls between the booms.

11 Terminally Typecast Actors

A little belated with this link, but better late than never. From Screen Junkies, my list of 11 Terminally Typecast Actors.

Best and Worst Talking Movie Animals

Another list for Screen Junkies! This one details the absolute trash of the live action wisecracking animal world, as well as some of those classic babbling beasts that made us laugh and love. (Shoot me for that schmaltz.)

Enjoy the 5 Best & Worst Talking Animals!

Some Thoughts on Film Criticism

Talking back and forth with commenters around the web and in discussion with my friends over the past three or four years, I’ve been fascinated by all the different methods of film “criticism” that can go on – meaning everything from shrugging your shoulders at a movie and saying, “meh,” to deconstructing its plot in a two-hour discussion afterward. As a a critic, I believe there is something to be said for looking deeper into the movies we watch, beyond mere entertainment, and actually appreciating craftsmanship, and I try to express these thoughts in word when I write a review. I resent it when critics are all branded as one body whose only job is to be movie killjoys and pick apart movies that are “just meant to be fun” or enjoy “snooty, uppity, artistic movies.” There is a place for every single kind of movie, from escapist kid-friendly “Spy Kids,” to long, lovelorn epics like “Atonement.”

9 Most Obnoxious Movie Watchers….

….has now been dugg over 1,000 times over at Digg.com! Pop open the champagne, we gotta celebrate!

Oh yeah, and just in case you were wondering, here’s the article itself, courtesy of Screen Junkies. Enjoy, dear reader.

Kenny McCormick, the little boy in the orange parka

A long, sad, hilarious history this little boy has had, and in a tribute to all this deaths and near-deaths, all the “oh my gods” and “you bastards,” I give you my article on Screen Junkies: South Park’s 13 Most Twisted Kenny Deaths. Peace.

Watchmen (9/10)

Originally, I was going to write a review based on Watchmen purely as a movie, unrelated to the graphic novel. That was before I actually read the graphic novel, and having done that, and been more able to appropriately grasp the spirit of the book, it’s impossible to look at Watchmen the movie as entirely separate from its origins. As I read through the graphic novel, I began to comprehend the immense scope of the whole thing – it’s much more than a graphic novel, incorporating elements of poetry, art, novels, newspapers, comics, and more into a seamless whole that traces the development of this superhero world from basically its beginnings to its present. It’s engrossing and impossibly well executed, and the very thought of trying to write a script for this beast almost makes the brain explode.

TV’s Top Ten Recyclable Characters

Written by yours truly, courtesy of Screen Junkies. Check it out right here.