Epinions Recent Reviews for benho

Review of the non-geek geek novel: The Brief and Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao

Sun, 14 Sep 2008 14:06:01 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author benho - I was inspired to pick up The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by an NPR story on finding a new book for the American high school english class canon. I was impressed that this book--which I only knew for its associations with Dungeons and...

Wanted: Wanted - or A Nietzschean uber-mensch shoots people in satisfying ways

Sat, 5 Jul 2008 21:09:49 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author benho - Bullets that curve. This could be the tagline and the recurring motif of this Assassin action thrill fest starring James McAvoy and Angelina Jolie, in this Timur Bekmambetov film (director of Russian runaway phenomenon, Night Watch) based on a Mark...

Commander's Palace: A classy cosmopolitan cajun antidote to cookie cutter contemporary cooking

Fri, 11 Jan 2008 03:33:25 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author benho - I think R-, my brother and I have all started to get jaded by upscale restaurants. The New-Contemporary American, more new-International, that Bobo's around the world are flocking to, with their asymmetrical white table settings, the sleek stark interior...

Mountains Beyond Mountains a biography by Tracy Kidder: Why anti-poverty crusader Paul Farmer irritated me

Mon, 27 Mar 2006 21:21:45 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author benho - Paul Farmer is a Harvard medical school professor who spends most of his time in Haiti fighting tuberculosis, AIDS and more generally poverty, both in Haiti and around the world. As someone who has dedicated his life to providing medical care for the...

What the Bleep: Innovative but superficial metaphysical excursion

Sun, 6 Nov 2005 08:21:36 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author benho - This film introduces deep questions about the meaning of life that sophomores with a good liberal education ask each other in the wee hours of the morning. It is a metaphysical excursion that brings ideas like Taoism, Humean Empiricism, Kuhnian...

Joss Whedon's Firefly: the Platonic Space Western Ideal

Sun, 19 Jun 2005 00:31:30 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author benho - I lost track of Buffy: the Vampire Slayer after the second season but I always respected its creator, Joss Whedon's, talent. His first comic book foray, Frey, was quite a disappointment, but his work re-launching the Astonishing X-men was exceptional...

Inept psychology, Interesting politics, Incredible worlds: Star Wars Ep. III

Thu, 19 May 2005 08:14:10 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author benho - So fulfilling my childhood cultural birth rite, I joined the throngs of costumed dorks and associated saber wielding geeks and attended the final Star Wars on opening night (as I had done for Episodes I and II and the re-releases of IV, V, and VI) and I...

Neal Stephenson, my cyber-fictional platonic analogue: A Diamond Age Review

Fri, 28 Nov 2003 19:02:43 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author benho - In preparation to embark on Stephenson’s latest novel(s), the 3000 page monumental Quicksilver series, I have been working to finish his earlier endeavors. In my first book review on epinions, on Stephenson’s...

Harper's Magazine: Highly informative, highly biased, quality magazine.

Mon, 16 Jun 2003 01:19:39 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author benho - My cousin, doctoral student in urban studies, and I, doctoral student in economics, share a friendly difference of opinions. Public policy-wise, we disagree on just about everything. For Christmas, she bought me a subscription to Harper’s, I...

Better Luck Tomorrow: The seedier side of the model minority

Sat, 12 Apr 2003 07:37:07 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author benho - ROAR

Apparently, the place to see or be seen if you were Asian-American in the Bay Area on Friday night was the opening of Better Luck Tomorrow a film by newcomer Justin Lin that has caused somewhat of a stir. I have in a previous...

Bel Canto - a Novel: Immersive, magical, real paean about opera and terrorism

Mon, 30 Dec 2002 16:24:24 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author benho - “When the lights went out, the accompanist kissed her” begins Ann Patchett’s imaginative, magical, enrapturing tale, a portrait really, of what happens when you put 60 strangers, picked to live in a house to find out what happens when people...

George Lucas: horrendous writer, mediocre director, legend of filmmaking – A Star Wars II review

Thu, 16 May 2002 09:13:07 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author benho - So I thought this might finally break my epinions retirement. But alas, to do a proper review still takes precious time and energy I do not have. However, given that I braved opening night to make it to the theater at 12:01 am open day, to a theater...

Trinities, Unities and the Hegellian Dialectic: Mallrats Deconstructed

Tue, 11 Sep 2001 03:50:56 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author benho - (Warning: the following review contains copious amounts of pop-philosophy and pop-sociology [close kin to pop-psychology] i.e. I am talking out of my a__. Read at your own risk.)

Two recent events converged to bring...

This one time, at band camp (a review of Blast! the Broadway musical?)

Fri, 31 Aug 2001 17:40:06 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author benho - The recent film American Pie has permanently inscribed the phrase "This one time, at band camp" into our national vocabulary. The high school marching band members, the so-called "band f__s" were never given much respect. At least the "drama...

Those wacky boondock Brits: Part I (a Very Annie Mary review)

Wed, 29 Aug 2001 16:34:31 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author benho - On my recent flight back from “the continent,” Virgin Atlantic provided some excellent viewing options, and I availed myself of two recent British offerings that carry on in the tradition of Billy Elliot and The Fully Monty both together...

Virgin Atlantic Airlines is psychedelic groovy. Yeah baby, yeah!

Wed, 29 Aug 2001 02:06:10 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author benho - Those of you who have read my recent book review on Leviathan [1] will recall that I have recently been living in a heightened state of surreality, and am increasingly convinced that I am living in some sort of Matrix tm. The latest...

I feel stupid. (or ego sentio bardus)

Fri, 17 Aug 2001 18:11:57 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author benho - I wrote this a few months in the book section, before epinions finally thoughtfully added this category about a week after the show closed on Broadway. I am now moving it to its rightful place. Hopefully, it will help those who might get to see it...

The Others: horror and wit? [a review-let]

Tue, 14 Aug 2001 17:55:08 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author benho - I have a penchant for verbosity. My typical reviews have a habit of running into the thousands of words. This is part two in my “review-let” experiment, on trying something different...

_______________________

I thought The...

Original Sin: oddly satisfying though bad [a review-let]

Mon, 13 Aug 2001 17:51:13 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author benho - I have a penchant for verbosity. My typical reviews have a habit of running into the thousands of words, which is fine sometimes, but often, I feel perhaps I am not worth listening to for that long. Thus, here I will try something new. I will be...

Happy in Happy, Texas: or Ben's musings on the future of content [future_of_Hollywood_w/o]

Fri, 10 Aug 2001 16:21:48 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author benho - In 1998, Mark Illsley and Ed Stone, two buds living in Los Angeles with barely existent film experience were bussing tables and making telemarketing calls to make ends meet. In their late 20's, the big 3-0 was fast approaching, and so they decided to...

Munitions in the war against policy by Anecdote (the Economist Magazine Pocket World in Figures)

Tue, 7 Aug 2001 17:30:34 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author benho - One of the great problems of our democracy is the lack of honesty in politics. I was standing on the Whitehouse lawn a couple of summers ago while Clinton was giving a speech regarding tax cuts. I was there, because as an intern for his budget office, I...

The most shoplifted book at Barnes and Nobles (a review of Paul Auster’s Leviathan)

Thu, 2 Aug 2001 17:35:38 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author benho - A recent NPR story recently asked the innocuous but piercing question: What books are most likely to be shoplifted from Barnes and Nobles? This question immediately begs the next question: Who shoplifts from a bookstore? Most of those denizens inclined...

Bad puns are too easy for this disappointing movie (a review for The Score)

Fri, 27 Jul 2001 13:55:40 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author benho - I was going to title this review, The Score packs no Heat , which I quickly vetoed, because if I was going to try to be punny, and bad punny at that, I should try to use the word “score” in the title. Those proved equally bad.
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Platonic Uncompromising Farce Writ Large (a Legally Blonde review)

Sun, 22 Jul 2001 14:29:34 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author benho - I know I am burning tons of reputational capital just by thinking these thoughts, but I cannot dissemble before my loyal readers. Therefore, without reservation, I must recommend this film and give it five stars. Not that I especially enjoyed watching...

NYC 101: "These vagabond shoes" (a travel guide, in stereo?!)

Sat, 21 Jul 2001 13:33:37 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author benho - New York The Big Apple The City That Never Sleeps The Beating Heart of the World! As my final weeks in New York wind down, and I prepare to travel across the country to my new home for at least 4 years, I have time to ruminate over why I love this...