In a break from tradition, I went through a loooong period of absolutely no movie watching over the past several weeks, which meant that Waitress, which got watched at the tail end of July, went unpartnered for mashing until I ended up in Atlanta, GA. While there, I saw Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. Naturally.

Despite almost eight weeks between them, and the fact that one movie was far better than the other, these two films have a surprising store

Up for Mashing:

Batman: The Dark Knight

Encounters at the End of the World


The Dark Knight, the latest Batman installment, is probably the most anticipated film of the summer. Health Ledger’s final performance no doubt fueled the furor, but it was going to be the biggest blockbuster this summer anyway. Clocking in at nearly three hours, it aims to give viewers their money’s worth, in raw dollars per minute at least.


So I’m just going to

I hesitated over this pairing, because if ever there is a movie mash-up to make one’s head explode, it is the union of Futurama* and Up the Yangtze. I’m not even sure I can approach this intersection without mental whiplash on a monumental scale.

On one end, we’ve got the straight-to-video snarkfest that is Futurama: Beast with a Billion Backs. This 90 minute film (episode? moviesode?) is the second installment of four direct-to-DVD movie-length stories, being released

On the small screen: Charlie Wilson's War
On the big screen: Gunnin' for that #1 Spot

It's been a busy week, and we've got a lot to get through, troops. So let's begin. Charlie Wilson's War is out on video now (in fact, from the preview for the now-obsolete HD-DVD format, it's been out for a while). It's a based-on-a-true-story story based on, yes, the story of Texas Congressman Charlie Wilson, who has a strange amount of power in the

Hey, sports movies! Who doesn't love 'em? They're the quintessential American movie, right? Because Hollywood ensures that the underdogs will always triumph. Not without pain, and not without some plot wrangling – but the regular schmoes will eventually be rewarded for all their hard work and effort. And the flip is also a given: the evil top dogs will be taken down, their sneaky tricks revealed, their cockiness vanquished.

But real life doesn't quite work like that, and neither do Semi-Pro

There's nothing like examining the stratification of society through the medium of filmmaking budgets. Son of Rambow is a pretty good example of your standard indie film, even though it undoubtedly has a slightly bigger budget than most – Hammer & Tongs, the makers, were the dudes who brought us the latest version of Hitchhikers Guide. Compared to the budget that Lucas had for IJ:KotCS, though, Hammer & Tongs might as well have scraped quarters off the floor of a