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1. Ten 2. Best 3. Lists

There is none so blind as he who will not see. It's true. Ray Stevens sang it in the hit single "Everything is Beautiful (In Its Own Way)." I have no idea why I just mentioned that. MSN Movies has…

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'50 Lost Movie Classics'

From the opening shot of "Cutter's Way" -- my favorite movie of the 1980s. ... and speaking of critical "best of" movie lists, here's a swell one called "50 Lost Movie Classics," from The Guardian. I might quibble with the…

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Happy Listmas! Year is Over (If You Want It)

"'Pan's Labyrinth" is the best movie of 2006. Right? Of course I'm right!" I don't disagree at all with Andy Horbal's list of reservations about annual critics' "Ten Best Lists." Andy (host of the recent, too-marvelous-for-words Film Criticism Blog-a-Thon), sizes…

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Drop everything, read this now

Fight Flub: America's approach to the fundamentally misconceived "War on Terrorism" thus far... “It’s now fundamentally an information fight. The enemy gets that, and we don’t yet get that, and I think that’s why we’re losing."-- David Kilcullen In "Knowing…

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Dreamgirls and Soul Man

Eddie Murphy and back-up singers in a soul revue from "Dreamgirls." Atlantic, Stax/Volt, Motown... Those are three (four?) of my favorite record labels -- and two of 'em are in the news now. Of course, Bill Condon's film of the…

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Opening Shots: The 'Burbs

From Dennis Cozzalio, Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule, Glendale, CA: The opening of Joe Dante’s cruelly misjudged and overlooked comedy "The ‘Burbs" begins with a vertiginous and hilarious parody of the God’s-eye view shot. Fade in on the…

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The Perfect Storm

View image A festive Casa Emerson just before the storm... UPDATE: Um, OK, where were we? Within hours of retrieving my PowerBook from its brain-transplant surgery (the new brain/HD is blank, or mostly blank: It did say "Abby Normal" on…

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Crash!

Sorry about the scarcity of posts in the last few days. I've been very, very busy catching up with year-end movies for ten-best list considerations. Then my PowerBook slowed to a crawl and went... bits up -- just as I…

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Opening Shots: Eyes Wide Shut

From Jonathan Pacheco, Anna, TX: When the release of "Eyes Wide Shut" drew near, a lot of the buzz was around it being a "sex film," and some (fools) went as far as to claim that its ambition was to…