I came across your site while I did a search on Google for %KEYWORD% and your article on %TITLE% was informative….

How do you expect him to yell and cheer at the premier?

Give the man some air!!!

You wanna see a movie that will give you chills about Nazis in your neighborhood? Go rent “Apt Pupil” — it is one of my favorite films (no, not because it’s got Nazis, you asses) but because the acting and overall tension of the film are so amazingly maintained once it gets going, and that film doesn’t take long to turn up the intensity. You first find yourself hating the kid and feeling bad for the old guy…

But you won’t stay that way.

That’s a good example of Nazis Who Remain Threatening…and there are many films and places where they will forever remain some of the scariest figures in history.

On the converse, Nazis have been used as comedy in more than one place. Sometimes, the best way to overcome an enemy is to make a fool of them. Best examples? The old classic “Stalag 17″ and its TV pal “Hogan’s Heroes.” Though the Nazis in “Stalag” are more menacing than those in “Hogan’s,” they are still largely made out to be fools. In Hogan’s, you watch and wonder how the Nazis–portrayed as hideously disorganized, flaky pawns–could have ever kept Hogan & his buddies in a bunker.

Nazis are scary and still walk among us, vermin that they are, just in a different form. But we’ve also had a big laugh at them…Monty Python fueled HOW many skits with German soldiers?

Yeah, keep counting. It might take you a while.

A truer statement can’t be applied to the absolute DRECK that is being passed off as film these days. I could not agree with you more about “Transformers” — quite honetly, it was an hour too long. Tits McWhoever will be masturbation material, enshrined forever as a Z-grade actress in an ultimately forgettable flick. She joins legions of other one-hit wonders in this regard. Shia, on the other hand, has been in actual movies, though I did see one of his that blew worse: “A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints.”

You wanna talk SLOW pacing? Dude, I had time to paint walls, watch Heaven’s Gate, and get another degree in the time it took for this limburger-laced disaster to achieve a single ounce of anything. I hated every one of the kids, wished they’d have all met untimely ends within the first 30 minutes of the run time, and really hated life while this was plaguing my DVD player. What was supposed to be an “artsy, powerful. coming-of-age” story was completely the opposite. I was supposed to feel bad for the main character, and I didn’t feel a damn thing. I don’t think it was necessarily just the performance facet, but the story was so awful that I just didn’t care.

They say truth is stranger than fiction, and this film is based on a true story. A truly BORING story and as un-strange and un-avant-garde and unmoving as watching a brick of cheddar grow mold. There were no surprises. The characters moved in the most predictable and stereotypical of patterns. If Hollywood makes another “poignant story about a boy coming of age,” I will shun theaters for a good five years. Add it to the list of films no one should see more than once, yet alone watch again in ten years.

You’re deaaaad right that your everyday moviegoer has a negative attention span. Proof? Angelina Craplie movies. Broad can’t act, but because she has the right eye makeup and looks “intense” whenever a camera is on her, she gets roles. Her movies demand nothing of you in terms of intelligence or ability to follow a plot. Mr. and Mrs. Smith–I saw it on a plane but didn’t pay for the headset, AND I DIDN’T NEED TO. That’s sad…there was nothing they could have said that I couldn’t determine from what I was seeing. Now, someone might read that and think, “Hey, the whole wordless communication thing…that means it was great writing!”

NO. It means it sucked so bad that you’d have been grateful to be deaf if you weren’t cheap like me and opted not to purchase the headset. Anyone could have followed the–AHEM–story without ever hearing what the actors were saying. Why? Because it didn’t matter! Brad Pitt (another useless actor, IMHO, good only in about 3 films) and Broadlina could have been swapping banana bread recipes, and fuck if the audience would have noticed. The movie did blow up a fair amount of props, so it did adhere to one of the major tenents you discuss. It didn’t move fast–I know because I later had this film INFLICTED ON ME WITH THE AUDIO–because the actors kept stopping to toss out the stupidest, most banal lines every written in history.

And the clown who gave us this cinematic triumph has also unleashed “Jumper” on us. What did we ever do to him? Can someone suspend his movie-making license already? That new film looks incredibly stupid, but, if what you say is true, it will be a hit: stuff blows up, it purports itself to be action; ergo, box-office smash.

Movies with plot and depth are being forgotten because the public is too stupid to pay attention. It’s amazing we even remember trailers. I rented “Reign Over Me,” and before you’re quick to judge, Adam Sandler and Don Cheadle were actually a great pairing. The movie isn’t funny a damn bit, though it may have a funny line here and there, and it’s a shame that Adam Sandler has effectively boxed himself in as a goofball because he pulled off his role with surprising interest and talent. I was hesitant to rent it but was very glad I did. This movie didn’t do great at the box office, and that’s a shame.

It may not go down in history as one of the best films ever, but it was memorable and certainly worth recommending to others. That’s not something I get to do often, as I am with someone who has the ability to rent the most categorically awful films ever made. When I do see a good movie, it’s a shock. I would even be happy with mediocre!

Books about writing (of any kind) all have one thing in common: they disagree. Everyone has his own pre-set rules and thoughts on the topic, all shaped by the teachers and professors responsible. I have read countless books about writing and honing style, but you know, while they might have good pieces to offer…it’s as you say–you fritter out the best portions and disregard the rest.

And that’s what good writing really is–the skill to know what to edit and what not to edit. I don’t doubt that Vagueland will be waaaay out there, but I also don’t doubt that it’ll stick with you long after it’s viewed.

I’m ready to buy my ticket.