Don't worry about it, McLovin. I was on the debate team at Shawnee Mission West and got a theater degree at KU.

Updated 2/11/09 by shimes

Obviously, this has been a long time coming. No, Filmsnobs is not going away! After fighting with my toolbar and Content Management System and getting married and having a new job and trying to buy a house, I finally figure out that, in order to update my site more often, it needs to be about 75% easier to work with. So that's what we're doing. Filmsnobs will stay here for archiving purposes, but I will be moving to a new site and a new domain name soon. I'm building a Wordpress site that will hopefully allow me to update the site daily. Not Andrew Sullivan prolificness, but much more often. We'll have widgets and RSS feeds and all sorts of fanciness. Keep checking back and I'll let you know when we're ready to relaunch!

Thank you for all your support over the years!

Steve

Updated 11/19/08 by shimes

Hey, all. Yes, I know. I've got a new job, I'm getting married, and I'm looking for a house. Here's a quota-filler for you, tough! I've got a slew of new reviews to the right. You may notice that the pitches and the usual shenagins aren't working right. I don't know why that is...lots of bugs in the system after I changed servers that I'm still trying to clear up. I'm working on it. New review of Role Models should be forthcoming. What I have seen that's come out on DVD since we last talked? Here's the rundown:

1½ Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones + 1 Sankara Stone = 2½ Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

1 Robert Ludlum + 1 Evan Almighty = 2 Get Smart

1½ Pan's Labyrinth + 1 X-Men: The Last Stand = 2½ Hellboy II: The Golden Army

2 Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse + 2 Ari Gold = 4 Tropic Thunder

1 Finding Nemo + 1 City Lights + 1 A.I.:Artificial Intelligence + 1 Idiocracy + 1 R2-D2= 5 Wall-E

In theaters this week and next:

Quantum of Solace: Daniel Craig has absolutely no fun as James Bond. I understand that the whole "brooding superhero" thing has raised the bar for big budget pictures, especially with Oscar nods for The Dark Knight on the way, but lighten up, dude. The whole point of James Bond is that he rolls out of bed in the morning with a blonde, a martini, and looks good in his tux. There's no awards for this--being Bond is the reward unto itself. Until you burn out and do something like this.

Madagascar 2: Escape to Africa: Is it possible to center an entire franchise on a remix of a fifteen year old minor dance hit reached #89 on the Billboard Hot 100? Dreamworks is going to find out.

Bolt: More animation, and this doesn't seem much better. John Travolta plays Bolt, who has lived his whole life on the set of a tv show and actually believes he has superpowers. Is it me, or does sound something like, I don't know, the actual life of one Miley Cyrus? Wait, she's in this too? Where are they going with this?

Twilight: I can't count myself among the aficionados, but I can say that the director choice is very intriguing. Catherine Hardwicke is a longtime production designer (not exactly distinguished--her best movie is Three Kings) who turned to directing in 2003. She directed Thirteen, a grungy indie featuring Evan Rachel Wood as an out-of-control teen battling her mom (Holly Hunter). Then she directed the underrated Lords of Dogtown, which follows a skateboard pioneers in Venice, California during the 1970s (watch for great performances by the late Heath Ledger and Emile Hirsch). She followed that with the anti-Passion of the Christ, The Nativity Story, which features Keisha Castle-Hughes (the Whale Rider girl) as Mary. So, yeah, teen angst is kinda her thing. That, and the studio followed Tthe Raimi/Jackson Rule of Franchise Blockbusters: hire an indie director who's done a lot with a little, rather than a big budget studio hack. We'll see.

 

Updated 10/6/08 by shimes

It's been a longtime, Filmsnobs fans. We've been undergoing a dramatic transformation here. The redesign is done, I've changed web hosts and domain servers and all kinds of other technilogical hoo-haw. That's all done, and now I can get back to the business of reviewing the movies. I've got eight films in the queue for you, along with some screenings where I'll get to see some stuff earlier and give you the word before it comes out. That's the kind of customer service we specialize in here at filmsnobs! Next week, I'll get back to giving you the regular updates and previews, just in time for the holiday movie season. For now, let me just give you some pitches of what I've seen in the last two months.

2 3:10 to Yuma + 2 A History of Violence = 4 Appaloosa

2 The Big Lebowski + 1 Dick Cheney = 3 Burn After Reading

1½ Wings of Desire + 1½ “Extras” = 3 Ghost Town

2 Before Sunrise + 1½ John Cusack = 3½ Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist

2 Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse + 2 Ari Gold = 4 Tropic Thunder

 

Updated 8/4/08 by shimes

Snobs, you might notice a few changes around here. I'm giving the site a little bit of a redesign to try to make it friendlier for you, the loyal filmsnobs reader. We cleaned up the right hand column and made the drop-down menu at the top work a little bit better, and soon you'll see some changes in how the reviews are staged over here to the right. If you have any suggestions, just email me by clicking on the Contact Us button under the Filmsnobs Feature menu.

Next up, I've got two reviews coming at you at Flak Magazine. Tuesday we'll have Swing Vote, which gets

1 The Candidate + 1 CNN/Youtube Debate = 2 Swing Vote

and Thursday is Pineapple Express,

1 The Big Lebowski + 1 Infernal Affairs = 2 Pineapple Express

Disappointing, huh? Well, how about this?

1½ The Producers (2005) + 1 Movin’ Out = 2½ Mamma Mia!

I don't know if I'll be able to review that one or not--as you know, I'm still hoping to get something done for The Dark Knight and Wall-E. What's on video?

1½ White Castle + 1½ Michael Chertoff = 3 Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay

 

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