Recent content by Russ Lucas

ThomasC, going by your location info, you've got every excuse to trade up now and become a Steelers fan! ;) I went to the game in Cincy three weeks ago and met a bunch of people from Miami of Ohio who clarified that they're pulling for Roethlisberger and his team by proxy. Personally, I...

Malcolm, I enjoy a bunch of the titles on your list of bought-but-yet-to-be-watched, but your comments on the films you've watched suggests that some of the conventions and styles that characterize older Hollywood films don't connect with you. Is there any way you can return some of those to...

Right on, Alex. It's completely optimistic. The rumored alternate ending-- now there's an ending of despair. The ending to the original Night-- there's a cynical ending. This one ends hopefully and just right, in my view. What other ending would be appropriate given everything else that came...

Thanks for the review. Does anyone know of a fansite with a fairly exhaustive list of the differences between the theatrical and director's cuts? Thanks for any help.

I'm a little perplexed by that chat response. Yeah, it's a Tod Browning film, but it's neither a horror film nor a Halloween film. They should release it some other time of the year. Like...now! ;)

I read the book to my daughter last year. Dahl had a sensibility in dealing with vice that couldn't be further from that of today's children's authors, who wouldn't dream of deriding kids for being fat or TV gluttons. Poking fun at compulsive TV-watching probably doesn't help you get that...

Apologies if this was mentioned previously, but the song "Pretty" by The Cranberries is now forever associated in my mind with the third act of a bad Robert Altman movie.

My guess-- and it's just a guess-- is that the original was 1.37:1 and it was cropped ever-so-slightly to fit 1.33:1, but that any alteration requires the "This film has been reformatted" notice. There's a similar notice on WB's Strangers on a Train DVD, and that was apparently shaved from...

I've got the C/T-S version, and would also be interested in seeing side-by-sides. I believe the trailer is included in the current version. As far as I can tell, the lone new special feature is the 6 minute making-of bit. It's a pity MGM didn't instead purchase Branaugh's Hamlet and...

I thought of this thread last night while watching Decalogue: 2. I won't spoil much, but the story involves, in part, a woman pondering what to do about her pregnancy. Most of the pondering is done while smoking.

This show continues to disappoint. I stopped watching fairly soon after the Shannon Elizabeth rip-off of the old A-Ha video. I tuned in again last night to see if I'd been unduly harsh. I don't think I was. Has anybody found anything to like about this show?

I think the message they're trying to convey in those party scenes, Shawn, is that many people there are smoking. It's probably an accurate portrayal. If it's an inaccurate portrayal, it may err on the side of overstating the smoking simply because, to a nonsmoker, being at a restaurant or party...

I haven't seen the movie to which you refer, but I have difficulty imagining that any movie that shows a person smoking heavily while pregnant and being preoccupied with the habit to the point of smoking immediately post-partum isn't trying to blatantly say that the habit is demonstrative of the...

Mike, don't be concerned that the ending is eating away at you. It does that to everybody who I've discussed the movie with, irrespective of their thoughts concerning faith and their own beliefs. It's a supremely beautiful scene. I don't know if any other movie has ever made me inhale sharply...

As yesterday's link was broken, here's the real link to the column that takes on the parity thing. http://espn.go.com/page2/s/tmq/021112.html