Back when I closed down Fantasy Hurler, my fantasy baseball blog, I had it in the back of my mind that another website would take its place, a pop-culture blog where I could write about movies, television, videogames, comics, etc. Good storytelling is really my number one passion, and while baseball ended up being something I had a hard time writing about year-round, I felt pretty certain I wouldn't have that problem if I decided to wade into the pop-cult pool. Plus, I knew it would tie in better with all the TV writing I've done elsewhere, as well as the essays I've written for BenBella's Smart Pop line. A pop-culture website could promote what I'm best at.
A year and a half later, that idea is finally a reality. Last weekend I launched Cult Spark, a new website dedicated to covering the best pop-culture has to offer in a variety of genres. Though the site is only a week old, I've got posts up about The Evil Dead, Breaking Bad, Mass Effect, RoboCop and Justified. So it's not hard to see where my interests lie -- in geek-friendly entertainments that may not always be mainstream but are wildly successful at sparking the imagination.
A couple things for you to know. One, I could use your help spreading the word. So if you know me or if you've enjoyed my past work, please like us at Cult Spark's Facebook page and become a follower of Cult Spark's twitter feed. Anything anyone can do to promote the new blog is immensely appreciated.
Two, though right now I'm the only one writing at Cult Spark, I'm hoping to pick up other contributors as the site grows. I don't want it to be my own personal pop-culture blog. I want it to be a welcoming home for smart film, TV and game writers looking for a place to get their work read. I've written at a number of places now -- sites I've started and sites where I was just hired help -- and the one thing I've learned is that good writers are always stronger together than they are apart. I can't make Cult Spark take off by myself, but with a few more unique voices, maybe it can grow into something special. (And, hey, if you're interested in contributing, please email me at bobtaylor52@yahoo.com.)
Additional writers aren't the only thing I've got planned. Though I've done some guesting, I've never had a podcast to call my own. That's in the works, so stay tuned.
Lastly, the launch of Cult Spark means that nearly all the pop-culture writing I do from now on will be there. I say "nearly" because I'll continue to update the movie journals I keep here at my personal blog, but the days where I would throw movie news or TV observations up at this site are now over. (Truthfully, those days have been over for a while, but this makes it official.) RobertBrianTaylor.com is now strictly a place for my family, friends and colleagues to find out what I'm up to. It can serve as a hub to my other work and as a home to those journals, but that'll be about it. If you've enjoyed the writing I've done here over the years, please come check out Cult Spark. You'll find more of the same. A lot more.
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Tuesday, January 03, 2012
Bob's 2012 Movie Journal
I had a lot of fun keeping a movie journal last year, so I figure why not do it again for 2012? Every film I see for the first time this year will be logged, rated and written about. Sometimes I'll write a little; occasionally I'll write a lot. Depends on the movie. And I plan on seeing a lot of them this year. As always, ratings are based on a one-through-five-star scale with no halfsies.
5/23 Source Code (2011) ★★: Chalk this one up as a noble failure. Duncan Jones' twisty sci-fi thriller, which finds Jake Gyllenhaal re-living the same eight minutes over and over again on a doomed train so he can find the man responsible for blowing it up, is ambitious and occasionally brainy. But nearly every attempt to ground the film emotionally -- for example, Gyllenhall's affection for a pretty train passenger played by Michelle Monaghan or his journey to find closure with his father -- falls completely flat. A little bit of ground is made up on that front near the end, but then it's immediately flushed away by the movie's final minutes, which feel like a big cheat.
5/7 Cool Hand Luke (1967) ★★★★★: Another title crossed off my "embarrassed to say I've never seen it" list. Anyway, it lived up to its reputation. Amazing how indelible a character Paul Newman creates with very little back-story or dialogue for support.
5/4 The Avengers (2012) ★★★★: No one has done large-scale comic-book mayhem on the big screen like this before, and it may be a while before someone pulls it off this well again. Read my full review at Cult Spark.
4/14 The Cabin in the Woods (2012) ★★★★★: Fantastic horror flick that both deconstructs and revels in the genre. Read my full review at Cult Spark.
3/17 Game Change (2012) ★★★: A straight-forward account of the behind-the-scenes maneuvering that led to John McCain picking Sarah Palin as his running mate in the '08 election. Very little in the movie surprises, as much of what's on screen is either easily remembered or easily assumed. Ed Harris doesn't make much of an impression as McCain, but Julianne Moore brings more to the Palin part than just a dead-on-accent. Woody Harrelson plays Steve Schmidt, the McCain strategist who was largely responsible for picking Palin as the VP candidate, and it's fun to see the subtle changes in his face when he begins to realize he's created a political monster.
2/29 Drive (2011) ★★★: A decent attempt at mimicking '80s Michael Mann, and as such, there are worse ways to spend two hours. But the spare story and cast characters who all fall into one of two categories -- one note or blank slate -- provide a far-too-minimalist spine for the film, no matter how hard director Nicolas Winding Refn attempts to buff every frame into a hyper-stylized sheen. Also, Drive's most thrilling sequence, by a large margin, is the pre-title getaway. When your movie's best scene is its first, that's usually a problem.
2/11 The King's Speech (2010) ★★★★: Such a lovely film. It's becoming more and more apparent that I will never tire of Geoffrey Rush.
2/8 Burn After Reading (2008) ★★: Even though this shares a lot of the same DNA with some of the Coen brothers' best films, it's much too scattershot and unfocused to cohere into anything satisfying. John Malkovich and Brad Pitt are worth a few good laughs though.
1/23 Super (2010) ★★★★: What is it with the violent, girly sidekick always stealing the show in this recent rash of "real-life superhero" movies? First Chloe Moretz runs away with Kick-Ass, and now Ellen Page completely owns every single second she appears in Super. It's nearly a trend. Past that, it may not be fair to compare the two movies, as they're more similar in concept than execution. Kick-Ass comes across as just an amped-up, somewhat loopy version of a mainstream superhero film compared to Super's low-budget, ultra-violent, darkly comedic take. A harsh revenge fantasy that can be both shocking and hysterical, Super struggles to balance its various tones early on, but things start to mesh once Page's Boltgirl joins Rainn Wilson's Crimson Bolt in his quest to fight crime and save his drug-addled wife from the dealer she ran away with. Writer/director James Gunn also made the delightfully crazy Slither. That film is better than this one, but Super still helps prove that we need Gunn making more movies more often.
1/16 Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory (2011) ★★★★: The fact that Purgatory is the third film in this series yet still packed with brand-new evidence that illustrates how badly the investigation into and trial against the West Memphis Three were bungled is astounding. As they have twice before, documentary filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky document the triple-murder case in incredible, riveting detail. They don't exactly come at the material from an unbiased angle anymore, but, honestly, how could anyone at this point?
1/13 Moneyball (2011) ★★★★: Not exactly the full truth -- I'm pretty sure the names Tim Hudson, Barry Zito and Mark Mulder are never spoken during the film -- but still a movie that's pretty much impossible for any baseball geek (which I am) not to enjoy.
1/8 The Book of Eli (2010) ★: Two hours of warmed-over post-apocalyptic cliches slathered in a dollop of hokey, faith-is-all-you-need spiritualism. And then there's a twist ending that the movie comes nowhere close to selling.
1/7 War Horse (2011) ★★★: The film is pretty and plenty well put together, but it didn't really connect with me on any kind of emotional level. Maybe it's because I'm not much of an animal person. Or maybe it's because there are no human characters worth getting attached to. I seriously couldn't tell you a single characteristic about the human lead other than he really liked his horse.
1/7 Mission: Impossible -- Ghost Protocol (2011) ★★★★★: The most fun and thrilling action movie I've seen in a good, long while. While most series are running on fumes by part four, the Mission: Impossible franchise is somehow just hitting its stride. With J.J. Abrams (who directed the very good M:I-III) still on as a producer and Pixar whiz Brad Bird making his live-action directorial debut, it seems Tom Cruise has finally found the right combination of people to unlock this property's full potential. The set pieces are amazing, including the jaw-dropper in, around and on Dubai's Burj Khalifa and a very clever prison break that opens the film. Simon Pegg is hilarious. Jeremy Renner gets to be funny, too, as well as appropriately bad-ass. The surprise cameos near the end allow this installment to warmly acknowledge the films that came before without overly relying on them. I know it's this series' M.O. to rijigger the cast and bring on a new director with each film, but I'm pretty sure no one will complain if Bird and this exact same team return for M:I-5. I certainly won't.
1/5 Green Lantern (2011) ★: It's somewhat ludicrous the things we film geeks obsess over before a film's release. With Green Lantern, all I heard about in the months leading up to the movie's release was how silly and fake the CGI suit looked. I'm sure there are pages upon pages of nervous message-board posts about it floating around the Net. As it turns out, the suit is just fine. Actually, it's better than fine. It's downright nifty. Too bad then the rest of the film is a complete and total train wreck. It's like the filmmakers took a bunch of bullet points from the comic's mythology and strung them together haphazardly without bothering to craft a functioning story. I could make a laundry list of things wrong with Green Lantern, both big and small. In fact, why don't I just go ahead and do that? Deep breath ... ready? ... here we go: Hal Jordan's character arc is murky and uninteresting; the emotional triangle linking Hal, Carol and Hector should have been more carefully set up earlier in the film in order for it to resonate more effectively later on; it's not always clear early in the movie when Hal has the ring with him and whether he's wearing it or has it stuffed in a pocket; there's a bunch of weird cross-cutting -- like between Hal taking the oath and Hector being infected -- that only serves to weaken the impact of the individual events; Hal only acts like a superhero for about 10 minutes of the movie (okay, 15 tops); there's a decided lack of money shots (when Carol throws Hal the ring near the end, I would have slowed that shit down and milked it for all it was worth); way too much time and energy is spent explaining Parallax's origin; characters enter and exit the story seemingly on a whim; etc.; etc.; and so on and so on. Green Lantern fans deserved better. Ryan Reynolds, who I like a lot and tries his best here, deserved better. Just a massive disappointment.
1/2 Machete (2010) ★★: There are sights worth seeing here -- Machete rappelling down a building using some bloke's intestines; Machete "steering" a car by twisting the blade embedded in the driver's back; Michelle Rodriguez's stomach -- but they're surrounded by so much embarrassing nonsense that the movie is ultimately not worth it. Also, Jessica Alba gives what may be the worst "let's go to war!" motivational speech in film history.
5/23 Source Code (2011) ★★: Chalk this one up as a noble failure. Duncan Jones' twisty sci-fi thriller, which finds Jake Gyllenhaal re-living the same eight minutes over and over again on a doomed train so he can find the man responsible for blowing it up, is ambitious and occasionally brainy. But nearly every attempt to ground the film emotionally -- for example, Gyllenhall's affection for a pretty train passenger played by Michelle Monaghan or his journey to find closure with his father -- falls completely flat. A little bit of ground is made up on that front near the end, but then it's immediately flushed away by the movie's final minutes, which feel like a big cheat.
5/7 Cool Hand Luke (1967) ★★★★★: Another title crossed off my "embarrassed to say I've never seen it" list. Anyway, it lived up to its reputation. Amazing how indelible a character Paul Newman creates with very little back-story or dialogue for support.
5/4 The Avengers (2012) ★★★★: No one has done large-scale comic-book mayhem on the big screen like this before, and it may be a while before someone pulls it off this well again. Read my full review at Cult Spark.
4/14 The Cabin in the Woods (2012) ★★★★★: Fantastic horror flick that both deconstructs and revels in the genre. Read my full review at Cult Spark.
3/17 Game Change (2012) ★★★: A straight-forward account of the behind-the-scenes maneuvering that led to John McCain picking Sarah Palin as his running mate in the '08 election. Very little in the movie surprises, as much of what's on screen is either easily remembered or easily assumed. Ed Harris doesn't make much of an impression as McCain, but Julianne Moore brings more to the Palin part than just a dead-on-accent. Woody Harrelson plays Steve Schmidt, the McCain strategist who was largely responsible for picking Palin as the VP candidate, and it's fun to see the subtle changes in his face when he begins to realize he's created a political monster.
2/29 Drive (2011) ★★★: A decent attempt at mimicking '80s Michael Mann, and as such, there are worse ways to spend two hours. But the spare story and cast characters who all fall into one of two categories -- one note or blank slate -- provide a far-too-minimalist spine for the film, no matter how hard director Nicolas Winding Refn attempts to buff every frame into a hyper-stylized sheen. Also, Drive's most thrilling sequence, by a large margin, is the pre-title getaway. When your movie's best scene is its first, that's usually a problem.
2/11 The King's Speech (2010) ★★★★: Such a lovely film. It's becoming more and more apparent that I will never tire of Geoffrey Rush.
2/8 Burn After Reading (2008) ★★: Even though this shares a lot of the same DNA with some of the Coen brothers' best films, it's much too scattershot and unfocused to cohere into anything satisfying. John Malkovich and Brad Pitt are worth a few good laughs though.
1/23 Super (2010) ★★★★: What is it with the violent, girly sidekick always stealing the show in this recent rash of "real-life superhero" movies? First Chloe Moretz runs away with Kick-Ass, and now Ellen Page completely owns every single second she appears in Super. It's nearly a trend. Past that, it may not be fair to compare the two movies, as they're more similar in concept than execution. Kick-Ass comes across as just an amped-up, somewhat loopy version of a mainstream superhero film compared to Super's low-budget, ultra-violent, darkly comedic take. A harsh revenge fantasy that can be both shocking and hysterical, Super struggles to balance its various tones early on, but things start to mesh once Page's Boltgirl joins Rainn Wilson's Crimson Bolt in his quest to fight crime and save his drug-addled wife from the dealer she ran away with. Writer/director James Gunn also made the delightfully crazy Slither. That film is better than this one, but Super still helps prove that we need Gunn making more movies more often.
1/16 Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory (2011) ★★★★: The fact that Purgatory is the third film in this series yet still packed with brand-new evidence that illustrates how badly the investigation into and trial against the West Memphis Three were bungled is astounding. As they have twice before, documentary filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky document the triple-murder case in incredible, riveting detail. They don't exactly come at the material from an unbiased angle anymore, but, honestly, how could anyone at this point?
1/13 Moneyball (2011) ★★★★: Not exactly the full truth -- I'm pretty sure the names Tim Hudson, Barry Zito and Mark Mulder are never spoken during the film -- but still a movie that's pretty much impossible for any baseball geek (which I am) not to enjoy.
1/8 The Book of Eli (2010) ★: Two hours of warmed-over post-apocalyptic cliches slathered in a dollop of hokey, faith-is-all-you-need spiritualism. And then there's a twist ending that the movie comes nowhere close to selling.
1/7 War Horse (2011) ★★★: The film is pretty and plenty well put together, but it didn't really connect with me on any kind of emotional level. Maybe it's because I'm not much of an animal person. Or maybe it's because there are no human characters worth getting attached to. I seriously couldn't tell you a single characteristic about the human lead other than he really liked his horse.
1/7 Mission: Impossible -- Ghost Protocol (2011) ★★★★★: The most fun and thrilling action movie I've seen in a good, long while. While most series are running on fumes by part four, the Mission: Impossible franchise is somehow just hitting its stride. With J.J. Abrams (who directed the very good M:I-III) still on as a producer and Pixar whiz Brad Bird making his live-action directorial debut, it seems Tom Cruise has finally found the right combination of people to unlock this property's full potential. The set pieces are amazing, including the jaw-dropper in, around and on Dubai's Burj Khalifa and a very clever prison break that opens the film. Simon Pegg is hilarious. Jeremy Renner gets to be funny, too, as well as appropriately bad-ass. The surprise cameos near the end allow this installment to warmly acknowledge the films that came before without overly relying on them. I know it's this series' M.O. to rijigger the cast and bring on a new director with each film, but I'm pretty sure no one will complain if Bird and this exact same team return for M:I-5. I certainly won't.
1/5 Green Lantern (2011) ★: It's somewhat ludicrous the things we film geeks obsess over before a film's release. With Green Lantern, all I heard about in the months leading up to the movie's release was how silly and fake the CGI suit looked. I'm sure there are pages upon pages of nervous message-board posts about it floating around the Net. As it turns out, the suit is just fine. Actually, it's better than fine. It's downright nifty. Too bad then the rest of the film is a complete and total train wreck. It's like the filmmakers took a bunch of bullet points from the comic's mythology and strung them together haphazardly without bothering to craft a functioning story. I could make a laundry list of things wrong with Green Lantern, both big and small. In fact, why don't I just go ahead and do that? Deep breath ... ready? ... here we go: Hal Jordan's character arc is murky and uninteresting; the emotional triangle linking Hal, Carol and Hector should have been more carefully set up earlier in the film in order for it to resonate more effectively later on; it's not always clear early in the movie when Hal has the ring with him and whether he's wearing it or has it stuffed in a pocket; there's a bunch of weird cross-cutting -- like between Hal taking the oath and Hector being infected -- that only serves to weaken the impact of the individual events; Hal only acts like a superhero for about 10 minutes of the movie (okay, 15 tops); there's a decided lack of money shots (when Carol throws Hal the ring near the end, I would have slowed that shit down and milked it for all it was worth); way too much time and energy is spent explaining Parallax's origin; characters enter and exit the story seemingly on a whim; etc.; etc.; and so on and so on. Green Lantern fans deserved better. Ryan Reynolds, who I like a lot and tries his best here, deserved better. Just a massive disappointment.
1/2 Machete (2010) ★★: There are sights worth seeing here -- Machete rappelling down a building using some bloke's intestines; Machete "steering" a car by twisting the blade embedded in the driver's back; Michelle Rodriguez's stomach -- but they're surrounded by so much embarrassing nonsense that the movie is ultimately not worth it. Also, Jessica Alba gives what may be the worst "let's go to war!" motivational speech in film history.
Thursday, November 03, 2011
Read my Spider-Man essay for free
Smart Pop is making "Raimi vs. Bendis," a Spider-Man essay I contributed to the book Webslinger, free to read up until Wednesday Nov. 9! I wrote this piece, which compares film director Sam Raimi's take on the wallcrawler to Brian Michael Bendis's version of the character, between Spider-Man 2 and 3. (Had it come after 3, it likely would have been weighed even more strongly in Bendis's favor.)
Monday, October 31, 2011
Reviewing what's new on TV
I've spent the last month tackling some of the fall's new shows over at Guy.com. So in case you missed them, go check out my reviews of Homeland, Terra Nova, Person of Interest and Ringer. Spoiler alert: Homeland is by far the best of the bunch.
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Read my Batman essay for free
"Keeping It Real in Gotham," a Batman essay I wrote for BenBella Books' Smart Pop line, is now free to read online and will continue to be until Wednesday, August 3. Go check it out as you try to calculate how many days are left until The Dark Knight Rises opens.
Friday, July 01, 2011
Photo Dump - Cape May, NJ
Spent a week in Cape May, NJ last month. Here's the photographic evidence:
Monday, May 16, 2011
Photo Dump - 5/16/11
I've been taking more and more photos lately. A few with the ol' SLR. More with my newish iPhone 4. I thought I'd start throwing some of the more interesting ones up here. (Just click on them for big versions.)
At the Carnegie Museum of Natural History.
Opening Day at PNC Park in April.
My first favorite baseball player.
Seen near Youngstown, Ohio. My question is: Did it fall just like this, or was it propped up after the fact?
A sign at a Wellsburg, West Virginia park and playground that I can't believe is even necessary.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Guess who's writing about TV again? Hint: It's me.
I've been hinting for a while now that I'd soon be writing about television again on a regular basis, and today "soon" finally arrived with the launch of Guy.com, a sweet new lifestyles/pop-culture site from some of the people who run net-movie-behemoth Chud.com. The plan is for me to write a new column that will go up every Monday. Each will include a Ready Your DVR sidebar pointing you to the week's most interesting TV programming.
Taylor on TV ended nearly three years ago, and it's nice to once again have an outlet to write about what I still consider the best kind of filmed storytelling: serialized television. This column won't be the same as the last one. After all, I'll be writing for a bitchin' lifestyles website, not some stodgy newspaper. Expect a wider range of topics, a renewed focus on shows outside the Nielsen top twenty, a bit more snark, a few four-letter words and instant feedback from me for those who comment on my posts.
My first two Guy.com posts are already up: a review of the new FOX cop drama The Chicago Code and a look at HBO's most exciting schedule in years. None of these columns will appear at this blog, but I'll be linking to them from my twitter feed when new ones get posted. Hopefully, you all will stop by Guy.com to check out not only my pieces, but all the excellent content my fellow writers are turning in.
Taylor on TV ended nearly three years ago, and it's nice to once again have an outlet to write about what I still consider the best kind of filmed storytelling: serialized television. This column won't be the same as the last one. After all, I'll be writing for a bitchin' lifestyles website, not some stodgy newspaper. Expect a wider range of topics, a renewed focus on shows outside the Nielsen top twenty, a bit more snark, a few four-letter words and instant feedback from me for those who comment on my posts.
My first two Guy.com posts are already up: a review of the new FOX cop drama The Chicago Code and a look at HBO's most exciting schedule in years. None of these columns will appear at this blog, but I'll be linking to them from my twitter feed when new ones get posted. Hopefully, you all will stop by Guy.com to check out not only my pieces, but all the excellent content my fellow writers are turning in.
Tuesday, March 01, 2011
If I were writing the new Superman ...
For some reason, Warner Bros. let David Goyer pen the new Superman flick instead of me. (I know, right? What's that about?) Anyway, if only I'd gotten a crack, this would be my opening ...
INT. OLD-FASHIONED MOVIE THEATER
The red velvet curtains covering the screen open up to the left and right, revealing the screen behind. Flickering onto it are black and white images of a sleek and modern version of America's greatest city. We PUSH INTO the screen, which floods with color revealing ...
EXT. METROPOLIS -- DAY
... Metropolis in all its glory. The camera SWOOPS through skyscrapers that glitter in the afternoon sun, WHIZZES by The Daily Planet topped by its giant spinning globe, then DROPS down to the streets below. Traffic and people snake in all directions. A newspaper blows by with a headline that reads, "SUPERMAN SAVES 10 FROM BURNING FACTORY." We now ZOOM IN on to the ground floor of a towering glass cathedral. A sign over the entrance reads, "METROPOLIS BIOSCIENCE." The camera RISES up the shimmering outer wall before SETTLING IN on section of the building around the 20th floor. The camera slowly PULLS BACK. A bird flies by. A few car horns HONK in the distance. All is calm. Until ...
CRASH!
A 400-pound ALIEN BEAST flies backward out of the skyscraper, sending glass shards in all directions. Clutching at air and SCREAMING in a horrible alien tongue, the beast falls to the street below, just missing a passing taxi and smashing the concrete to rubble. Smoke pours through the hole left in the skyscraper clouding what lies behind ... until a shape takes form in the haze. The shape of a man.
Superman emerges from the destruction. He flies upright with his head held high and his toes pointed downward. His hands are curled into fists. He glances down below to survey the damage. Seeing that no citizens were injured in the beast's fall, he takes steadying breath, readying himself for this battle's final round. Then, in a flash of red, he's soaring to the street below. The beast pushes itself upright and raises its spiked arms to block. Superman pulls back a fist to strike.
The two collide.
INT. OLD-FASHIONED MOVIE THEATER
The red velvet curtains covering the screen open up to the left and right, revealing the screen behind. Flickering onto it are black and white images of a sleek and modern version of America's greatest city. We PUSH INTO the screen, which floods with color revealing ...
EXT. METROPOLIS -- DAY
... Metropolis in all its glory. The camera SWOOPS through skyscrapers that glitter in the afternoon sun, WHIZZES by The Daily Planet topped by its giant spinning globe, then DROPS down to the streets below. Traffic and people snake in all directions. A newspaper blows by with a headline that reads, "SUPERMAN SAVES 10 FROM BURNING FACTORY." We now ZOOM IN on to the ground floor of a towering glass cathedral. A sign over the entrance reads, "METROPOLIS BIOSCIENCE." The camera RISES up the shimmering outer wall before SETTLING IN on section of the building around the 20th floor. The camera slowly PULLS BACK. A bird flies by. A few car horns HONK in the distance. All is calm. Until ...
CRASH!
A 400-pound ALIEN BEAST flies backward out of the skyscraper, sending glass shards in all directions. Clutching at air and SCREAMING in a horrible alien tongue, the beast falls to the street below, just missing a passing taxi and smashing the concrete to rubble. Smoke pours through the hole left in the skyscraper clouding what lies behind ... until a shape takes form in the haze. The shape of a man.
Superman emerges from the destruction. He flies upright with his head held high and his toes pointed downward. His hands are curled into fists. He glances down below to survey the damage. Seeing that no citizens were injured in the beast's fall, he takes steadying breath, readying himself for this battle's final round. Then, in a flash of red, he's soaring to the street below. The beast pushes itself upright and raises its spiked arms to block. Superman pulls back a fist to strike.
The two collide.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Bob's 2011 Movie Journal
Sad to say, this blog has gone untended for a couple of years now. I continue to write about poker at Three Rivers Poker. And it looks like I'll soon be writing regularly about TV again for a brand new entertainment/lifestyle site that will launch in the coming weeks. But it's been a good long while since I felt compelled to write anything significant for this site right here -- my original personal blog. I think I've found a way to fill that void.
Annoyingly, Netflix dropped its social-networking features last year, meaning I can no longer my share thoughts on recently watched movies through the site. So I've decided to do that here instead in one regularly updated post. This post. Every movie I watch for the first time in 2011 will be cataloged right here. I'll give a rating and write a few comments about each film. Most of movies on the list will end up being slightly older films I watch via Netflix, but I'll see a handful at the theater this year and I'll include them as well.
By December 31st, I should have a nice little movie journal completed. It'll largely be for myself. But for anyone who stumbles across this site, either by checking in on me or finding it through my other writing, I hope it's worth a minute or two of your time. And comments are welcome. All right, enough preamble. Let's get to the movies. All ratings are based on a one-through-five-star scale with three stars being average and no half stars.
Annoyingly, Netflix dropped its social-networking features last year, meaning I can no longer my share thoughts on recently watched movies through the site. So I've decided to do that here instead in one regularly updated post. This post. Every movie I watch for the first time in 2011 will be cataloged right here. I'll give a rating and write a few comments about each film. Most of movies on the list will end up being slightly older films I watch via Netflix, but I'll see a handful at the theater this year and I'll include them as well.
By December 31st, I should have a nice little movie journal completed. It'll largely be for myself. But for anyone who stumbles across this site, either by checking in on me or finding it through my other writing, I hope it's worth a minute or two of your time. And comments are welcome. All right, enough preamble. Let's get to the movies. All ratings are based on a one-through-five-star scale with three stars being average and no half stars.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)