The Comedians of Comedy dir. Blieden Opens Fri Sept 23 Guild Theater For years, I’ve been insisting that I hate standup comedy. I’m not sure why, exactly—I like a great number of standup comics, and it’s not the art form itself I’m opposed to. I think what I hate are standup comedy clubs, places with […]
Erik Henriksen
With honor and distinction, Erik Henriksen served as the executive editor of the Portland Mercury from 2004 to 2020. He can now be found at henriksenactual.com.
Posted inMovies & TV
An Unfair Fight
Digging Up a Pretty Good Corpse Bride
The success of 1993’s The Nightmare Before Christmas caught a lot of people off guard, I’m sure. It sounds patently unsuccessful: a stop-motion musical about a skeleton who hijacks Christmas. But the film—which was directed by animator Henry Selick, based off of Tim Burton’s story—boasted big box office and video sales, not to mention enough […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Kickin’ Ass and Forgetting Names
The Cool Predictability of Lord of War
As arms dealer Yuri Orlov, Nicolas Cage has his shit together: A confident strut, expensive
Posted inMovies & TV
Mormons vs. Moore
Succinct Reviews for the Discerning Cinephile
It’s easy to take sides in This Divided State, a film about Michael Moore’s ridiculously controversial visit
Posted inMovies & TV
I’m Staying Home
TV on DVD, Part One
Years ago, a pretentious friend said, “TV is dead to me. I only watch TV on DVD.” It sounded like bullshit then, but now it’s pretty much true: Just as moviegoers are deserting theaters in favor of Netflix, TiVo-challenged couch potatoes are waiting for DVD to conveniently watch TV shows—with 100% fewer annoying commercials, no […]
Posted inMovies & TV
A Trip to 2046
(What’s 2046? Well, Uh… You Tell Me?)
I can’t fault 2046 for what it decidedly chooses not to be (i.e., “comprehensible”). Because even though it opts to go in some frustrating and vague directions, Wong Kar-Wai’s latest film is—as has been pointed out by pretty much every
Posted inMovies & TV
Goofy, Gore-Happy, Lame
An Overpriced Dead & Breakfast
You’ve heard it all before: Group of semi-likeable teens gets stuck in a small town where something seems amiss; night falls, and soon afterward
Posted inMovies & TV
Geek Out
Quickly! To the Internet!
As of press time, there are over 4,800 angry posts on Sony’s PlayStation Portable website. The topic of nearly every post: Where the hell’s the system update? For the non-PSP gamer—e.g., those who aren’t the angry geeks venting their frustrations on the internet—here’s the lowdown: A while ago, Sony promised a firmware download for the […]
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Combustion Point!
Or, How Hot Do I Need to Get This Thing So it Will Catch on Fire?
Pullout: The Fire Issue
Posted inMovies & TV
Down with PG-13!
And Up With The 40-Year-Old Virgin
The PG-13 rating might’ve been the worst thing to ever happen to movies. Well, maybe not to all movies, but certainly to comedies and action films