Morlock

Wes Anderson's most acessible, to be sure. Stop-motion is a perfect fit. I don't think it's Desplat's best at all...but it's a terrific little score, and a perfect fit for the film.

I meant to catch up with, looked like fun. Totally forgot about it, though.

Why does The A-Team get dumped in with those scores? It's the most enjoyable Silvestri score in a while!

'Pretty damn brilliant'? Hardly. He went from a composer who one could expect remarkable things from to a good, effective, minor one. Duplicity is about the best I could hope for nowadays from Howard- a fun, spirited score that totally apes John Powell. Horner's score was terrific in the film, and makes for a good album, as well.

Yeah, there are a good dozen films or so I am anticipating...though none of them feel like they might crack the pantheon, which every year should have. The best storytelling I saw in 2010 was season 3 of Breaking Bad.

That is some disengenuous horse-shit.

I thought the writing was rather good. Can you describe "problem"? Least interesting to date? How about "Truth Or Dare"? I have many problems with Sorkin's dialogue, but those are not specific to this film. I think that Sorkin has so little interest in or sympathy for the world and characters in the film, that by default, he turns it into a simple and simplistic film about ambition and friendship, anchored by the 'Rosebud' of the one that got away. A lot of interesting ideas in there- geeks as rock-stars, class-warfare, a sad remake of Revenge of the Nerds, the price of brilliance, the lack of connection in today's culture, the codes we've set up for ourselves- but the frame limits them, and none of them really flower into something beyond mildly interesting. And like Spielberg with Kushner, it seems a bit like a unique director bows down to his screenwriter, giving far too much of his vision up for the prestige of directing a script by a Pulitzer prize winner. I have no idea what Truth or Dare is.

The Social Network. A bit better the second time, but still the least interesting of Fincher's films to date. Sorkin is the film's biggest problem, by far.

Best new scores: How to Train Your Dragon, Harry Potter VII, Karate Kid, The Ghostwriter, Inception[/i], The A-Team. Best new films: Animal Kingdom, Shutter Island, Winter's Bone, Hadjwich, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, The Robber, Please Give, Kick Ass, Inception, The Social Network....bleak, bleak year. No Inglourious Basterds or Serious Man to spice things up, no outstanding animated films. Most overrated films: The Social Network, Inception (both good, simple films with interesting ideas that are not written particularly well), and The Kids are All Right (Not a good film at all).

A belated Christmas greeting to y'all! Morlock-

Been listening to a Randy Newman greatest hits CD and his Pixar scores. I'd always been aware of his songs, and knew a few of them, but I've gained a whole new appreciation for the man after being immersed in his songs. His score, which I knew pretty well, somehow seem more...intelligent. Incidentaly, I had no idea he wrote You Can Leave Your Hat On.

Agreed on all counts.

Sons of Anarchy: Season 3. It's kind of a mirror image of season two. That one was a strong season with a weak ending, this one is the other way around. It was lost for a good deal of season 3 (though it was great to see the wonderful James Cosmo), but brought it in for a very strong and satisfying ending. The show is very plot heavy, and the writing isn't up to snuff, but it sure is diverting, with some really nice performances. I think I'm done with drama for the time being, unless I decide to start Dexter...next up, The Larry Sanders show, Curb Your Enthusiasm and giving How I Met Your Mother a try (though I sincerely doubt I'll have much patience for it...2 camera sitcoms with a laugh-track are such a thing of the past).

Hey, the nightclub sequence is very funny.

And there's that pathetic sense of anticlimax, with the fiddling with the stool before he falls.

Last few weeks I've read Earth: The Book, which was friggin' hilarious, and reread Harry Turtledove's wonderful Ruled Britania- an alternate history thriller about William Shakespeare in an England that was conquered by the Spanish. Fantastic book.

Yeah, that's one of the good ones...a bunch of good takes on the problematic aspects of Schindler's List and SPR.

Adam Zanzie and Ryan Kelly have set up a very impressive blogathon for the man with the beard...a whole of good stuff in there (it runs through the 28th). http://www.spielbergblogathon.blogspot.com/

Isn't it a bit pointless to praise a remake of an Asian film as being a standout American film? Not necessarily.

Verbinski has shown a very good hand at action directing, at the very least.

I think it's not even close. It's interestng, but extremely forgettable, and doesn't play to Verbinski's talents.

I didn't like his last scene at all, though I did quite like the fact that for the first time in a while, he gets that he's doing a crazy Nicholas Cage performance, rather than that coming out by accident. Still, my favorite performance by him -recently and ever- is Lord of War.

I can't look at it at work...but that already looks like the funniest and most accurate youtube clip of the week.

I don't think the oscars are going to be as hot on Burlesque as the foreign press was...they typically nominate only reasonably popular musicals (Dreamgirls, Chicago, Enchanted).

'Unconvincing look' hardly typifies Branagh.