For anyone who has looked at Movie Geek Central, my movie review website (see link in sig), you may have noticed the last update happened in July. I got involved with an Internet venture that had the potential to be really cool, but that destroyed my schedule. And when it suddenly tanked, my life was further disrupted.
Anyway, I’ve secured a consulting gig, at least for now, and have resumed regular updates. Current films whose reviews are now on my site are Cast Away, O Brother, Where Art Thou, and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Soon to be reviewed are Traffic, State and Main, Quills, and more. Plus updated news, an Oscar preview, and other fun stuff.
Check it out…
Whoops, I forgot to turn on my sig…
No time to check the rest of your work but kudos for the Eyes Wide Shut analysis.
I search out reviews and that was the most well reasoned accounting of this movie I have ever read. I rarely go to the gouge-o-plexes anymore, two or three times a year, but I was waiting for EWS. And it was a Christmas movie released in JULY. There was so much sighing, seat shifting, and ‘WTF was that’ going on. My reason for picking a seat dead center front five rows is to detach from the damn audience. Have you noticed how the screens have gotten smaller and the average movie experience is akin to a large TV if seated too far back?
Gotta say I disagree on the Toweringness of Saving Private Ryan. The first thirty minutes blew me away the first time I saw it. But the film didn’t stand up to repeated viewings, and repeat viewing is my ultimate measure for a great film.
I respect your love of film: will you please review Thin Red Line?
I compare SPR and TRL using the Cheers theme: Ted Danson kind of sucked in Ryan. Woody Harrelson in ThinRed was great. Therefore in the Cheers world Thin Red Line was superior.
I sort of agree on Private Ryan – I did that review the very night I saw it, and you’re right, it does tend to diminish in effect with repeated viewing. I still do think it’s quite good; so although it isn’t as great as I initially thought, neither have I joined the bandwagon/backlash that now calls it an overrated misfire.
And re Thin Red Line, I was one of very few people who really thought it was an amazing work of cinema. You can tell, though, from my Eyes Wide Shut review and others, that when I come across films of great resonance and beauty, I try not to make pronouncements too quickly. I fully intended to see TRL in the theatre again, and then do a review, but it died at the box office and disappeared so quickly I didn’t get a chance. Hence, I didn’t feel I could do a fair critique. I’ve since seen it on video, where it doesn’t work quite as well as on the big screen, and I’m confident my initial response was correct, but the time has sort of passed for a detailed review, especially since I’m playing catch-up for the last six months. Maybe I’ll change my mind, and do something like my Magnolia review, where I try to steer mainstream audiences away while giving it a strong recommendation for cinephiles. But not soon; too much to do…
Yahooooo! 
Cervaise, I am very happy… both that you’re writing again and that you told us here; I’ve stopped checking at the site.
I have told dozens of people about MovieGeek… your reviews are insightful, helpful and funny.
So, thank you!
BTW, do you know about MovieLens?
No pressure re: Thin Red Line. I understand life in catch-up. It’s just people stood in line to trash it. “Terrence Malick never met a leaf he didn’t like” and whatnot. I saw it once on pan-n-scan video and just loved it. I have got to sneak a DVD in under the Mrs. M radar (budgeted for renovations at this point: no entertainment boxes in my immediate future)so I can watch it in the correct aspect ratio again and again.
Please, continue enlightening us in whatever time frame you can comfortably manage.
As tacky as this may sound I have an idea about the ‘new thoughtlessness’ of movie audiences. The illicit movie drug of choice in years past was pot. Today’s audiences seem to be on crack. Just a thought.