Epinions Recent Reviews for Mr_Scrooby

Roman conquest as allegory

Tue, 9 May 2000 04:42:14 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Mr_Scrooby - So, has anyone else picked up on the movie's World War II aspects?

It struck me from the opening battle scene, in which Maximus leads the Roman army to conquest over the barbarians of (ironically, if you buy my theory) Germania. It struck me...

Sell (out)! Sell (out)! Sell (out)!

Tue, 18 Apr 2000 17:39:50 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author Mr_Scrooby - Judge a book by its cover? Damned straight.

More precisely, judge this book by its jacket flap. Joey Anuff gazes to his right, co-author Gary Wolf to his left. And there you go: Had I written such a tribute to greed and smugness, I wouldn't be...

The Talented Mr. Hitchcock

Wed, 5 Apr 2000 04:48:18 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author Mr_Scrooby - I could not help but dig the following things about "Rope":

* Naturally it's pretty neat how the movie is a series of eight-minute takes (the maximum length of a film reel in 1948). But what's even neater is how, in one of the takes,...

Mission: Impossibly loony

Sun, 12 Mar 2000 05:35:47 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author Mr_Scrooby - We've been wrong all along. It's not the moon, but rather Mars that is made of cheese.

This is the declaration made by Brian de Palma's "Mission to Mars," a film whose stunning visuals are overwhelmed only by stunning hokeyness.
...

Little wonder

Sat, 26 Feb 2000 23:51:00 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author Mr_Scrooby - So there's this guy who has lost the fire of his youth. He is detached from his wife and isn't thrilled about his job. To get back in step, he befriends a creepy (yet oddly sensitive!) boy; they bond over pot. He becomes a father figure to a pretty girl...

WebHelp.com: Not much help at all

Sat, 26 Feb 2000 21:57:55 GMT

rating: 1/5 by: Epinions Author Mr_Scrooby - Three times have I used the services of Webhelp.com. Not once have its results been useful.

In my most recent query, I posed as a person who wants to poison his mother-in-law, but who is being rather indirect about it.

I began: What...

Classic Mamet, damnit

Thu, 24 Feb 2000 01:53:20 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author Mr_Scrooby - Compared with its bastard son "Boiler Room," "Glengarry Glen Ross" is superior in so many ways, not the least of which is subtlety.

Take, for instance, the common use of the "sick relative" as motive. In...

Daily Northwestern: That racist Daily

Wed, 23 Feb 2000 19:44:22 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Mr_Scrooby - About a week ago, according to the Daily, a high school runner "got down on all fours and rolled over" at the end of a race. The boy died soon thereafter.

In today's letters, a woman accuses the Daily of being insensitive and racist...

TV Shows: My "Twenty-One" audition: Stupid, stupid people

Wed, 23 Feb 2000 04:35:29 GMT

rating: 1/5 by: Epinions Author Mr_Scrooby - It's raining, and it's rush hour. I'm driving up 280 toward the city, where I'm to audition for "Twenty-One." This is going to be my big break. I can feel it.

I fantasize about riches and fame. After I win, I'll work for two weeks to...

Who wants to be a goob?

Sat, 19 Feb 2000 09:22:21 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author Mr_Scrooby - I had this roommate in college. He and his friends spent much of their freshman year pretending to be hip-hop. They called one another "Dogg," bellowed "be-atch!" down the stairwell and said "Yo" a lot.

It was all...

Mo' meta blues

Thu, 10 Feb 2000 10:09:52 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author Mr_Scrooby - After the Eggers bookreading in the City, I overheard one hipster savant say to another: "He even uses the same font as David Foster Wallace."

He was wrong, of course. Flip through "Infinite Jest" and look at the...

Citizen zany

Sun, 30 Jan 2000 05:57:53 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Mr_Scrooby - "Cradle Will Rock" -- the "Deep Impact" to "Topsy-Turvy"'s "Armageddon" -- is, political lecturing aside, a fun movie. Its tale is of plucky actors putting up a volatile play in volatile times, but, unlike many...

Imprisoned by the genre

Sat, 29 Jan 2000 00:06:13 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author Mr_Scrooby - The wrongful conviction is a staple of American cinema, "The Fugitive" being among the better examples, "True Crime" among the worse. It's a genre that plays to three fascinations usually reserved for sports: the underdog, the...

Wildcat haiku

Fri, 28 Jan 2000 17:54:36 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author Mr_Scrooby - Ivy safety school

Pretentiousness coveted

Ergo, "State school" chants

Small class sizes

"Oh, God, please don't call on me;

I didn't study"

Crossing Sheridan

Meal trips are games of...

Putting the boo back in boogie

Tue, 25 Jan 2000 21:42:54 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author Mr_Scrooby - It's funny. "Boogie Nights" seems guilty of all the indictments made of "Magnolia": boring, long, unfocused and poorly acted. But although I loved "Magnolia," I could never get into "Boogie Nights."

It's...

See "Rushmore" instead

Mon, 17 Jan 2000 02:39:12 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author Mr_Scrooby - The evening got to an ominous start when the video clerk said: "Oh, man, you should see 'American Pie' instead. It's much better."

"Nah, I don't go for the crass stuff."

Little was I to know.

Although...

Dopey is as dopey does

Sun, 16 Jan 2000 20:15:24 GMT

rating: 1/5 by: Epinions Author Mr_Scrooby - What's frustrating about "Cider House Rules" -- even beyond its inherent dullness -- is that it is clear it was based on a fine book. But the movie merely suggests the full characters and interesting story presumably found in John Irving's...

Millionaire? Yes, please

Wed, 12 Jan 2000 06:30:28 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author Mr_Scrooby - I've gotten in to the contestant hotline ((800) 433-8321) each day this week. To get to the next round, one must correctly arrange three sets of elements, each within 10 seconds.

Here are some of the questions I heard, the correct answers and...

Debt poets

Sun, 9 Jan 2000 22:29:24 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author Mr_Scrooby - "If you refuse to let them go, I will plague your whole country with frogs." -- Exodus 8:2 (New International Version)

And so it is that "Magnolia" reveals itself as a movie about debt, forgiveness and release: the killer's...

I know what you did in Mon-gibello

Sat, 25 Dec 1999 22:33:38 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author Mr_Scrooby - I have written this review in the form of 5-7-5 Haiku*.

Hitchcock-esque thriller

Thought I knew what to expect

Trailers said too much

Pleasantly surprised

Plot weaves like a drunk spider

Competent...

So bad, it's Mad

Sat, 25 Dec 1999 07:12:10 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author Mr_Scrooby - This review is written in the form of a Mad Lib. Fill in the blanks at the top, then insert them where marked in the review.

Please post the results as a comment to this epinion. You also are allowed to copy the results and use them as your...

Printer's Inc.: Coffee, books and a letch, oh my!

Thu, 11 Nov 1999 22:09:41 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author Mr_Scrooby - Before work on Thursdays, I like to go to Printers Inc to drink coffee and read the New York Times (or, as we say in the business, the NYFT).

The international coffee selection is wide -- a lot of African varieties lately -- and the...

Leggo my ego

Sat, 6 Nov 1999 03:39:53 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Mr_Scrooby - Yes, it's as weird as you've heard. Yes, it's as good as you've heard. To say much more risks ruining your experience, but 75 words, the tyrants say, must be written.

And so:

Hapless puppeteer David Foster Wallace (played by John...

Do not play

Wed, 3 Nov 1999 17:44:11 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author Mr_Scrooby - "The Game" is about a misguided man who agrees to be subjected to an elaborate series of tricks and deceptions. It's a very expensive production meant to teach him a life lesson, but he becomes frustrated at the wanton manipulations and tries...

Minor-league writing

Mon, 1 Nov 1999 21:09:48 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author Mr_Scrooby - The St. Paul Saints baseball concern deserves to have a good book written about it. "Slouching Toward Fargo" is not it.

Rich in history, soul and wit, the Saints have gotten plenty of press lately, and to anyone familiar with their...