"The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter." —Mark Twain
Unsolicited opinions on books, movies, TV shows, consumer products
“I hope your kids have bad influences and develop bad personalities. I wish this with all my heart.” — Christos Stergioglou as The Father in Dogtooth Unstoppable (2010) Unstoppable is not unlike the runaway freight train it features: it crashes right through every objection you might have to it. Dirt simple, all action, one cliffhanger […]
“We went to the moon to have fun, but the moon turned out to completely suck.” — M.T. Anderson, Feed Zero Station, by Amanda Hamm I mistakenly downloaded this to read on my Nook. Billed as a novella, it isn’t even a short story … more like a pitch for a story idea. A good […]
“You just got your ass handed to you by a goddamned retiree! ” — Rebecca Pidgeon as Cynthia Wilkes in Red The Kids Are All Right (2010) I don’t doubt this movie drives right-wingers, evangelicals, and all the other homophobes crazy, but you know what? It’s a great film about family, full of heart, and […]
“Machete don’t text.” — Danny Trejo as Machete Cortez in Machete 21 Grams (2003) Sad tortured people doing sad tortured things for two sad tortured hours. If you can deal with industrial strength depression, by all means watch 21 Grams for the great acting. I would even say watch it for the interesting way in […]
“She got out of the car, a tall woman with long fair hair and a smell of flowers and lemons, plus a trace of another smell that reminded me of what happens only sometimes to the females in my world. What would that be like, having it turned on all the time? Probably drive you […]
From the news desk of the Democratic Peoples’ Republic of Korea Central News Agency: Dancing Parties of Youth and Students Held Pyongyang, April 25 (KCNA) Dancing parties of youth and students took place in different parts of the country Monday on the army day. They began to the tune of “Long Live Generalissimo Kim Il […]
“People do not give it credence that a 14-year-old girl could leave home and go off in the wintertime to avenge her father’s blood but it did not seem so strange then, although I will say it did not happen every day. I was just 14 years of age when a coward going by the […]
“You know, you know, a friend of mine a while back broke his hand and put it in a cast. Very next day, he falls, protects his bad hand, and he breaks his good one. So he breaks it too, you know. So, now he’s got two busted flippers. So, I says to him: ‘Creighton,’ […]