death race is pretty fun

Much to my pleasant surprise, I found Death Race to be a perfectly enjoyable way to round out the summer movie season. Oh sure, it's insanely violent and geared entirely to young men, but it's big-dumb-fun done well.

nixon: the movie

Nixon, Oliver Stone's underrated 1995 biopic of the disgraced president, returns to DVD. My review is up at Vulture.

staind: the illusion of progress

Staind were huge back in 2001 thanks to their monster ballad "It's Been Awhile." Not surprisingly, their latest album, The Illusion of Progress, has a couple "It's Been Awhile" clones on it. My review is at About.

traitor: don cheadle in syriana territory

Traitor is a political thriller that tries to be more sensitive in its depiction of Islamist terrorists than your average Hollywood fare. But despite Don Cheadle's good performance, the film aspires to the cosmopolitan flair of a Syriana or Traffic without possessing their depth. My review is at Screen International.

woody allen on vicky cristina barcelona

Cities move me. That’s why I don’t think I could make a film in a place that would appear boring to me, or unromantic. If I’m making a film in Venice, or Paris, I can really do a good job and make the atmosphere part of the story — that’s very important to me. Originally, when I was doing this film, I was going to title it Midnight in Barcelona. And then I changed it, because I just felt the film was about Vicky, Cristina and Barcelona — that it required equal billing.

The rest of the interview with L.A. Weekly's Scott Foundas is here.

vicky cristina barcelona is terrific

And David Denby will explain why.

radiohead: house of cards

Right, you've already seen this. But in case you haven't, you really should. And if you've only seen it once, why not see it again?

enough of mccain

A reader of Andrew Sullivan's fantastic blog has had enough with the recent turn in sympathy toward John McCain:

McCain wants to win the election, and he's shown since he lost in 2000 that he's willing to compromise his own values entirely for the sake of cozying up to the neo/theocons. He traded his "maverick" credibility in a long time ago, and we should all stop trying to excuse his boorish behavior.

Nicely said. The rest is here.

one day as a lion

If you haven't heard One Day as a Lion yet, and you're a fan of Zack de La Rocha's vocal stylings from Rage Against the Machine, you might enjoy what you hear. My review is up on About.

henry poole is here

Luke Wilson stars as the despondent titular atheist of Henry Poole Is Here. It's an affecting performance in a low-key way, but the movie is a little too doe-eyed for my taste. My review appears in L.A. Weekly.

randy newman's so-so new album

I love Randy Newman, but even he can make a mediocre record on occasion. Harps and Angels, his latest, has plenty of nice touches, but it's just not up to his high standards. I review it in Consumables, as well as discuss Keane's new single, the Hold Steady's recent L.A. show, and the documentary Stealing America: Vote by Vote.

star wars: the clone wars

The animated Clone Wars film, which hits theaters August 15, in some ways improves on the debilitating problems of the mediocre prequels. But George Lucas's franchise still seems to be running out of gas.

the shins: pink bullets

This might be the saddest video ever. If it's not, I'd love to hear your alternate picks.

pete seeger: the power of song

The Power of Song, the great documentary about folk singer Pete Seeger, comes to DVD today. I give it the brief once-over at Vulture.

trapt - only through the pain

Only Through the Pain is the third album from the rock band Trapt. How is it? About the same as their last two.

the airborne toxic event

This L.A. indie rock band made a big noise last year when their first song, "Sometime Around Midnight," started getting a ton of airplay on KROQ and Indie 103 without the band even having a record deal. Well, now the album, The Airborne Toxic Event, is here. I review it for Blender.

andrew sullivan is back from vacation

God, have I missed him.

the hold steady: the swish

In honor of the great Hold Steady show I attended this week, here's "The Swish" from their first album, Almost Killed Me. The "Beverly Hills" line played well with the L.A. crowd. One note: Craig Finn is much more spastic than this in concert -- it's really a sight to see.

the mummy: tomb of the dragon emperor review

The buzz has been very bad for the new Mummy movie with Brendan Fraser and (in the Rachel Weisz role) Maria Bello. Well, I saw it, and Tomb of the Dragon Emperor is a pretty joyless affair. Who wants a no-fun mummy movie?

photo op

In case anyone out there wonders what I look like, here's a picture of me from my About.com page.

the bronx speaks, and i marvel at slipknot

In the new issue of Kerrang, I interview Joby Ford of the critically acclaimed punk band the Bronx. If that's not enough for you, I also covered the Rockstar Mayhem tour, which gave me new appreciation for Slipknot.

the dark knight: my take

Most concede that The Dark Knight is quite good, but just how good is it? I weigh in over at my Consumables column. And if you're sick of all the Batman talk, I also review Baghead, Boarding Gate, Frozen River and Man on Wire.

john prine and iris dement: in spite of ourselves

"In Spite of Ourselves" is the title track from John Prine's 1999 comeback album, a collection of country covers. This song (a duet with Iris DeMent) was the only one he wrote, and as he explains in this clip from Sessions at West 54th, he did it for a Billy Bob Thornton movie. Prine is the example of a great country songwriter who writes with sentiment without being overly sentimental. (OK, he can be overly sentimental sometimes, too, but he's earned it.)

Special note for my wife and I to ponder: I'll sometimes say to her "you're my baby, don't mean maybe" -- did I get that from a line in "In Spite of Ourselves"?

step brothers review

Will Ferrell and director Adam McKay have been on a hot streak since Anchorman and Talladega Nights, but with their latest, Step Brothers, it appears they've gone to the same comedy well once too often. My review is at Screen International.

ebert looks back on his life in the balcony

As you've probably heard, Ebert and Roeper is no more. For me, after Gene Siskel died, there was simply no way to carry on -- there was no way to replace him -- but Ebert has tried gallantly in the years since. With he and Richard Roeper officially walking away from the program, Ebert writes about the show's long history (33 years) and his memories of Siskel. Among many striking moments was this recollection of discovering that he and Siskel were famous because of their show ...

The day we fully realized it in our guts, I think, was the first time we were invited to appear with Johnny Carson. We were scared out of our minds. We'd been briefed on likely questions by one of the show's writers, but moments before airtime he popped his head into the dressing room and said, "Johnny may ask you for some of your favorite movies this year."

Gene and I stared at each other in horror. "What was one of your favorite movies this year?" he asked me. "Gone With the Wind," I said. The Doc Severinson orchestra had started playing the famous "Tonight Show" theme. Neither one of us could think of a single movie. Gene called our office in Chicago. "Tell me some movies we liked this year," he said. This is a true story.

You can read the entire piece on Roger Ebert's blog.

electoral college: the time-wasting game

If you haven't seen this on 270towin.com, you really need to: It's a computer simulation that plays out all the different electoral scenarios for this fall's presidential election based on different polls. I went from zero to obsessed in about 0.3 seconds.

Oh, and Obama fans? I've run the simulation enough times to see several outcomes where McCain wins, so don't start celebrating yet.

'Asian Stories (Book 3)' Review

Asian Stories (Book 3) is getting a brief L.A. theatrical run, presumably thanks to the fact that its star, James Kyson Lee, plays Ando on Heroes. If anybody is wondering whether to see this comedy-drama or just go to Comic-Com this weekend, well, maybe my review will help make up your mind for you.

buckcherry and norma jean speak to me, separately

I have two features in the new issue of Revolver. I interviewed Buckcherry about their forthcoming album, Black Butterfly, and I profiled the Christian metal band Norma Jean who will be putting out The Anti Mother imminently. The articles aren't available online, but the magazine should be on shelves as we speak.

UPDATE (Nov. 10, 2008): The Norma Jean interview is now available on Revolver's website.

david bowie: live in santa monica 36 years ago

Live Santa Monica '72 is the finally officially released live album from David Bowie during his Ziggy Stardust period. I have a brief write-up at Vulture. For a longer appreciation, proceed to Blender to read Rob Sheffield's assessment.

brideshead revisited

The new adaptation of Brideshead Revisited starring Emma Thompson and Matthew Goode looks great and has several good performances, but its unrequited love story could use a little more heat.

the band: it makes no difference

It's Friday, it's been a long week, let's enjoy a little of "It Makes No Difference" from The Last Waltz. Deal?

Ebert Remembers 'La Dolca Vita'

Roger Ebert writes very well about a few classic movies -- not only that, he keeps revisiting them over time, and writing more about them as the situation dictates. La Dolce Vita is one of those films. It helps that I love the movie, too, but, it's clear Ebert responds to Fellini's film on a profound personal level:

Although it is great, I have seen greater films than "La Dolce Vita." But it is the film of my life. By its eternity I measure my time.

The whole piece is here.

beck: modern guilt

My review of Beck's Modern Guilt is up at Metro Times. What can I say? On the whole, I've really liked his recent stuff, and the new album is no different.

hancock is underrated, wanted is terribly, terribly overrated

So says I in my latest Consumables column for The Simon. Also included are reviews of Garden Party, R.E.M.'s Accelerate and Erykah Badu's magnificent New Amerykah.

meet dave: a surprisingly not-bad eddie murphy film

Meet Dave is a perfectly respectable kids' movie, and Eddie Murphy is genuinely funny for the first time in a long while. But don't rush out and see it.

contempt: i remain unmoved

There are few cinematic classics that leave me so divided as Godard's Contempt. It's one of those films where I enjoy its lovely-worded reviews much more than I enjoy the film itself. The last time I sat down with Contempt on DVD, I watched it and then re-watched it with the commentary track, which added many great insights but didn't greatly change my muted feelings about Godard's overly intellectual deconstruction of "Hollywood" and "love" that wasn't nearly as emotionally devastating as its admirers claim.

Well, the film is returning to Los Angeles on Friday, where it will play at the Nuart, which is where I saw it the last time it was re-released back in 1997. I'm pretty sure I don't need to see it again, but Ella Taylor's terrific piece in the L.A. Weekly makes me wonder all over again.

the stone angel

The Stone Angel, a tearjerker adaptation of the Margaret Laurence novel, would have benefited from a harder-edged approach, but nonetheless it's an affecting drama starring Ellen Burstyn and a pre-Juno Ellen Page. My review appears at The Village Voice.

my new gig at about.com

In early June, I was selected to be the Rock Music guide at About.com. Organizing a site from scratch, under the direction of the great people at About.com, has been a major undertaking, but now that I feel a little more comfortable in the role, I'm very much enjoying it.

At About.com, I'll be doing reviews, profiles, interviews, and a blog that covers everything that falls under the category of Rock Music -- we're talking Foo Fighters, Soundgarden, Daughtry, etc. It'll be updated just about every day with new content, so come by often to see the latest and greatest.

And because it's run by me, there will be lots of Top 10 lists as well.

pixar's short films

They're available online now -- even the new one, Presto, which plays in front of Wall-E. Let the productive time-wasting begin.

kenneth turan on criticism

Kenneth Turan, film critic of the Los Angeles Times, writes today about the nature of being "right" in one's opinions. It's a brief, but thoughtful piece. There are several good bits worthy to frame above your computer, but here's my favorite:

If you come out of a film and aren't sure what your opinion is, it likely means you do know but are not comfortable with your thoughts.

You don't have to be a spineless jellyfish to worry on occasion if you've missed the point of a movie other people either love or hate much more than you do. For me, this creeps up if I'm inordinately tired or unhappy/distracted when I get to the screening. Turan's advice couldn't be simpler or more helpful: Relax, and just trust yourself.

george carlin proposed to this guy's wife

This is terrific.

wall-e made me very happy

My review of Wall-E is up at The Simon as part of Consumables. Also in this edition: reviews of The Visitor, Aimee Mann's @#%&*! Smilers, Gonzo, The Edge of Heaven and much more.

ranking the pixar films

Vulture doesn't include Wall-E in its list as it ranks Pixar's eight other films. The bottom of the bunch, not surprisingly, is Cars. No. 1 is a bit of a surprise. For what it's worth, here's my ranking (including Wall-E) with links to my reviews where possible ...

9. Cars
8. The Incredibles
7. Ratatouille
6. A Bug's Life
5. Monsters, Inc.
4. Toy Story 2
3. Wall-E
2. Finding Nemo
1. Toy Story

My review of Wall-E will be up at The Simon tomorrow.

Top 10 Protest Songs of the 21st Century

The staff of Under the Radar, which includes yours truly, selected the top 10 protest songs since 2000. You can find the results (and the reader response) here. I wrote about Jarvis Cocker's "Running the World" for the magazine. It's not available online, but you can enjoy the issue's cool cover(s) on the magazine's website.

the palm beach story: reconsidered

Putting the finishing touches on its month-long Preston Sturges retrospective, Cinefamily will be screening The Palm Beach Story on Friday. I write about the film for L.A. Weekly, focusing not on its humor but its underlying sadness.

no age

Nouns is the full-length debut of the Los Angeles noise rock group No Age. It's one of my favorite records of the year so far.

jerry seinfeld on george carlin

It takes one comedian to describe another comedian's genius, and that's why Jerry Seinfeld's appreciation of George Carlin in the New York Times is just right.

jason patric and samantha morton in expired

Expired is an intriguing romantic-comedy about two people who aren't right for each other at all: a piggish parking official and his punching-bag fellow employee. Jason Patric is quite good, Samantha Morton less so. My review is up at The Village Voice.

battlestar galactica: revelations

The final episode before the mid-season hiatus was a damn good one. Now we have to wait until 2009 for more Battlestar. Dang it. My recap is at Vulture.

Kit Kittredge: An American Girl

Abigail Breslin and her fellow young actors are quite good in this touching live-action adaptation of the popular American Girl franchise. Too bad the story's a bit of a snoozer, though. My review is up at Screen International.

get smart

Steve Carell is a decent Maxwell Smart, but the big-screen version of Get Smart is only so-so. My review is at Screen International.

my thoughts on jack black

The Biography Channel interviewed me as part of an hour-long special on Jack Black. I haven't seen the episode yet, so I have no idea how much I'm featured in it -- or if I look unusually unattractive -- but it airs tonight. Info on the program is here.

megadeth bring the thrash

In the new Kerrang!, I go behind the scenes of Gigantour, the annual metal festival put together by Megadeth's Dave Mustaine. This year, the tour included Children of Bodom, In Flames and copious amounts of head-banging. My piece isn't available online, but it's on magazine stands now.

battlestar galactica: the hub

At a wedding this weekend, I had several conversations with Battlestar fans, and the consensus was that this final season has thus far been pretty mediocre. I had to admit it was a relief: I was starting to worry that I was the only one who had been disappointed with the recent episodes. Good news, though: Things turned around a bit with Friday's episode, "The Hub." My recap is at Vulture.

perez hilton speaks

Perez Hilton, the love-him-or-hate-him celebrity gossip king, sits down to talk about his annoying personal habits and the musicians he's friends with. The dirty details are at Blender.

you don't mess with the zohan

Adam Sandler returns with You Don't Mess With the Zohan. If you love gags about hummus and sex-crazed men who talk in funny accents, this is the movie for you.

war and peace: the epic movie

Starting Friday, LACMA will be showing the seven-hour version of War and Peace, the 1968 winner of the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. Is it worth seeing? Yes, yes, yes. My piece appears at L.A. Weekly.

miss conception

Heather Graham survives the embarrassing debacle that is Miss Conception, but this romantic comedy is a must-miss. For all the gory details, read here.

jamie lidell gets his groove on

Jim is the name of British soul singer Jamie Lidell's new album. The man does funk-lite right: My review appears at the Metro Times.

weezer have a new album

This is the third time the band has named one of its albums Weezer. (Before this, there was The Blue Album and The Green Album.) My review of The Red Album appears at Blender. (And as an added bonus, here's my original review of their second album, Pinkerton, that appeared in the Daily Trojan way back in 1996.)

battlestar galactica: sine que non

Friday's episode of Battlestar had a lot of totally nutty things going on involving pregnant Cylons and dead cats. Thankfully, Bill Adama was still Bill Adama. My recap appears at Vulture.

when did you last see your father?

Director Anand Tucker's When Did You Last See Your Father?, based on the memoir of poet Blake Morrison, sports a terrific lead performance from Jim Broadbent. (After watching him in the new Indiana Jones sequel, it's nice to be reminded how good he can be when allowed to actually, y'know, act.) As a whole, the film is simply too emotional restrained, but for a male weeper, it does the job.

r.e.m.'s mike mills speaks

Not to me, sadly. But the Chicago Tribune's Mark Caro got R.E.M.'s bassist to talk about the band's writing process and why he's sick of critics calling Accelerate their "return to form." (I'm with you there, Mike.) Also fun: We finally find out who actually wrote "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?"

short order

The fluffy romantic comedy Short Order is recommended to fans of Amelie, old-school Hollywood musicals, the culinary arts and, most importantly, insufferable amounts of self-indulgent whimsy. My review appears at L.A. Weekly.

battlestar galactica: guess what's coming to dinner

Lots of surprises and lots of small little storytelling annoyances came together in Friday's episode of Battlestar Galactica. My recap is at Vulture.

a thought from woody allen to end our week

From an interview in today's Hollywood Reporter...

Gregg Goldstein: Since death has been such a theme in your work, how do you feel about death now? How have your feelings about it changed?
Woody Allen: They haven't changed. We're hard wired to reject it. Problem is, it doesn't reject us.

The full interview -- tied to the premiere of his new film, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, at Cannes -- can be read here.

roger ebert on david mamet

One of the filmmakers Roger Ebert assesses better than just about any other critic is David Mamet. Ebert's review of Mamet's undervalued Val Kilmer thriller Spartan is one of those pieces I go back to on a consistent basis: He captures not just what is great about the movie, but also how seductive its twists and worldview are. Plus, Ebert clearly loves writing in a rat-a-tat style that's an homage to Mamet's hyper-artificial dialogue.

Mamet's the sort of writer-director who works in such a distinct way that his fans can easily become obsessed, and Ebert speaks to how that obsession feels. In his new blog, Ebert discusses Redbelt, suggesting that it deserves its own genre: the twister. It gives him another chance to get at the heart of what makes Mamet's movies fascinating, even when they're not great.

when good bands rise from the ashes of other good bands

When a popular band breaks up, you expect its individual members to go off and do mediocre side projects and cruddy solo albums that never live up to their once-high standards. But that's not always the case: For VH1.com, I look at those rare instances where one band's collapse made way for the birth of a new good band.

brooks melchior speaks

Sports by Brooks is a Los Angeles-based sports site that features gossip, news, humor and, oh yes, many pictures of beautiful women. For L.A. Weekly's annual L.A. People Issue, I speak with the man who runs SbB, Brooks Melchior. We discuss how he found the site's lovely ladies and why his social life is nonexistent.

How the Garcia Girls Spent Their Summer

Three very good performances, including one from "it" girl America Ferrera, are almost enough to recommend How the Garcia Girls Spent Their Summer, a tale of three generations of women looking for love in their sleepy small town. But ... well, my review is in L.A. Weekly.

destroyer's dan bejar speaks

Trouble in Dreams is the fine new album from Destroyer, a Vancouver band lead by Dan Bejar. (He also contributes songs to the New Pornographers.) Bejar is touring to support Dreams, so I was thrilled to get a chance to talk to him about his surrealist lyrics and the grinds of the road. My interview appears in the Phoenix New Times.

grand theft auto iv: overrated?

I read a lot of film, music, and book reviews. But I don't read many video-game reviews, although a large reason for that is because I don't play video games. So it's been interesting to read some of the articles about the new Grand Theft Auto game, most of which have declared it the greatest thing ever. The Village Voice's Gary Hodges begs to differ with all that:

Now that other games are improving, GTA’s continued shortcomings have become harder to excuse. Perhaps that’s being critical. Or maybe it’s just being a critic, which sometimes means pointing out the hooligan has no clothes.

The full review is here. One thing I love about video-game reviews: They capture the stream-of-consciousness rush of the games themselves. It's as if the writers are recording their experiences as they're playing.

robert christgau discusses the b-52's, aging

With the nationwide push to cut older music and film critics, it's important to remember that people who were born before, say, 1965, might actually know a thing or two the rest of us don't.

For example, who else but 66-year-old Robert Christgau could lend this insight about the new B-52's album, Funplex?

In an unseemly display of decaying flesh, these nutty kids turned DOR nostalgia act make their first album in 16 years their sex album. Eeyew, say today's normal kids. 'Bout time, says anybody old enough to know that one lure of the flesh is that it's always decaying.

Perfect. The rest of this month's installment of his Consumer Guide can be found here.

battlestar galactica: faith

If Battlestar Galactica wasn't set in outer space, an episode like "Faith" would earn it a ton of Emmy nominations -- it was a wonderfully well-written piece, exceptionally acted by Mary McDonnell. But, alas, because it's a "sci-fi show," it'll always be stuck in that disrespected ghetto. My recap of "Faith" appears at Vulture.

here's all you need to know about speed racer

"This toxic admixture of computer-generated frenzy and live-action torpor succeeds in being, almost simultaneously, genuinely painful -- the esthetic equivalent of needles in eyeballs -- and weirdly benumbing, like eye candy laced with lidocaine."

That's Wall Street Journal's Joe Morgenstern take on Speed Racer. I haven't seen the film yet, but his review is a good way to keep those expectations down, huh? But, honestly, can it be worse than V for Vendetta?

radiohead: from the basement

Well, this is a pleasant surprise: To promote In Rainbows, Radiohead went into a London studio to perform a series of songs that were later broadcast as a special on VH1. The resulting show, From the Basement, confirms that while Radiohead may still be one of the world's best bands, I wish they could bring more flesh-and-blood intimacy to their avant-rock compositions. As an example, here is "House of Cards," an In Rainbows track I adore. This live version blows it away.

the whigs and what made milwaukee famous

Two great indie-rock bands performing on the same bill: So why does that make me so darn nervous? My piece is up at the Phoenix New Times.

lyrics born

Everywhere at Once is the new album from Bay Area hip-hop artist Lyrics Born. He takes on Homeland Security and relationships, but not at the same time. My review appears at the Metro Times.

obama wins north carolina

I'm on deadline right now, so I can't focus on tonight's primary results as much as I'd like, but this made me happy. (Here's the full text of Obama's speech in North Carolina.)

bloodline

Picking up where The Da Vinci Code left off, Bloodline is a documentary that investigates the theory that Jesus had a child with secret wife Mary Magdalene. The film is strangely watchable, but that's not the same thing as saying it's good.

battestar galactica: the road less traveled

In this week's Vulture recap, I sing the praises of Tahmoh Penikett, who plays the quietly heroic Helo. He was all over Friday's episode, and he was terrific in it.

tom waits goes on tour

Can I forgive him for skipping over Los Angeles because of this video "press conference"? Almost.

my take on iron man

Good but not great. I review the Robert Downey Jr. blockbuster and also take on Flight of the Red Balloon, Coldplay's new single, Standard Operating Procedure and more in today's Consumables.

kenneth turan on iron man

I'll have my thoughts on Iron Man up in a couple days, but in the meantime, the Los Angeles Times' Kenneth Turan's review will do nicely.

Jonathan Rosenbaum on 'Eyes Wide Shut'

Recently retired Chicago Reader film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum has his own site up now, and it's a great archive of his reviews and articles, going back to 1987, with some gaps in there. I could have picked just about anything, but I always thought he's done great work with Stanley Kubrick's films -- he just "gets" them on a fundamental level -- so here's his rave for the much-maligned Eyes Wide Shut.

underoath speaks

Christian metal band Underoath are currently recording their follow-up to 2006's Define the Great Line in Atlanta. I spoke to them for Revolver, and our chat appears in the new issue out now. It's not online yet, but here's what to look for on your neighborhood newsstand.

made of honor

Patrick Dempsey and Michelle Monaghan are nothing but charming in Made of Honor -- so how does the movie go so wrong?

2001 explained

There are thousands of interpretations of the meanings within 2001: A Space Odyssey. This might be the best of the bunch.

in the bleachers

Like a lot of newspapers of late, the Los Angeles Times has had to deal with layoffs and shrinking page counts. The sports section is a shell of its former self, but, miraculously, In the Bleachers, the one-panel cartoon from Steve Moore, is still there. (It's buried in the back, next to the minor-league baseball standings and the gambling column.) It's very much in the oddball vein of The Far Side, which debuted six years before it, but while no one would describe the strip as hip or edgy, it makes me laugh on an almost-daily basis.

grand theft auto IV

Not only do video games make more money than movies, they get much more glowing reviews. (I'd be curious to know if the world of video-game criticism is being downsized as dramatically as their film counterparts are.)

tom morello speaks

It's not available online, but in the latest issue of Kerrang! is my interview with Tom Morello, who's back on the road with Axis of Justice, his tour that brings together country, hip-hop and hard-rock acts to raise awareness for worthy causes.

andrew sullivan is reading my mind

And if that's the case, thank you, Mr. Sullivan: You've helped cheer me up considerably this morning.

battlestar galactica: escape velocity

Was it just me, or was everybody in Friday's episode of Battlestar overacting just a wee bit? My rundown is at Vulture.

redbelt

David Mamet's new film Redbelt is another of his elaborate-con dramas, but it has two interesting wrinkles: It's set in the world of mixed martial arts and, more importantly, it stars the magnificent Chiwetel Ejiofor.

those damn subway ads

I'm glad I'm not the only one who finds those "five-dollar foot-long" ads from Subway insanely, evilly catchy. Slate's Seth Stevenson interviews the commercials' "diabolical geniuses" and learns their tricks.

burt reynolds: what's the "deal"?

The mustachioed former sex symbol is the main reason to give Deal a try. But probably not a strong enough reason.

2001's moonwatcher speaks

Anybody who obsesses over 2001: A Space Odyssey as much as yours truly needs to read this.

battlestar galactica: the ties that bind

Friday night's episode of Battlestar was the season's best so far. My rundown at Vulture is here.

baby mama

Tina Fey and Amy Poehler are really funny in the warm, likable Baby Mama. My review appears at Screen International.

beyond the call

Beyond the Call is a well-meaning documentary about three unpretentious Good Samaritans who are worth admiring. Too bad the film about them isn't.