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Unsolicited opinions on books, movies, TV shows, consumer products
Downfall (2004) If you have even the slightest interest in WWII in Europe, Downfall is a must-see. Who isn’t fascinated by Hitler? I lived in Germany in the mid-1950s and the images are still with me: bombed out buildings, walls with bullet holes, kids my age with twisted legs from rickets, women everywhere, almost no […]
Army of the Republic, by Stuart Archer Cohen For the past two years I’ve been seriously thinking about what American working people might do if the government allows employers to destroy labor unions and cancel pension obligations. I’ve been entertaining fantasies of assassination teams, composed of unemployed and retired auto workers, picking off high-profile CEOs […]
Cleaner (2007) I didn’t know this was a straight-to-DVD release until after I’d watched it. Might that have influenced my decision to rent it? Probably, so I’m glad I didn’t know, because I really enjoyed the movie. Great cast, interesting story. Okay, maybe not the most brilliant movie, but if TV was this good I’d […]
The Counterfeiters (2008) When Germans of the current generation face their past, they do it with utter honesty. For all the Hobbesian bleakness inherent in this movie’s subject — “continual fear, and danger of violent death, and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short” — there’s a weak ray of triumph at […]
It’s in the dictionary, somewhere between “shit” and “syphillis.” Two quick reviews of movies whose main characters I could not sympathize with: Secretary (2002) My wife got up and stomped out of the room halfway through, mumbling about perverts . . . and the seriously perverted stuff hadn’t even started yet! Self-mutilation and sadomasochism, the […]
Sometimes you just have to give in and watch a blockbuster Hollywood fluff flick . . . or two. Hancock and The Dark Knight sat in our queue for weeks, each bearing Netflix’s dreaded “very long wait” warning. Our wait ended last week, and we watched them back to back. Hancock (2008). A movie […]
Two books and one movie I hated. Your mileage, as they say, may vary. Trojan Odyssey by Clive Cussler. Four sentences, pulled at random from different chapters, should tell you all you need to know: Now as their objective stood before them it became obvious that unlike the others towns and cities they had sacked, […]
Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex. I enjoyed Mary Roach’s writing in Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, so I bought Bonk on CD to listen to on long drives. Turns out there’s quite a bit about sex I didn’t know (imagine that). Honestly, you’ll want to experience this work in private […]