What I Learned from Movie X: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

This is a column that I started writing for Box Office Prophets. I had a lot of fun with it, and hope to start it up again someday. We’ll see.

“I’m sure that you assumed, while walking into Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, that you were in for another Michael Bay smorgasbord of explosions, boobs and explosions, with some fun racism thrown in for the kids. And yes, all of that was in there, but there was so, so much more (there kind of had to be; the freaking movie is two and a half hours long). Little did you know that you were actually about to be treated to one of the most blatant pieces of conservative propaganda shown in movie theaters since Glen Beck’s Common Sense Comedy Tour.

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All Day, Half the Knight

This is an article that I wrote shortly after seeing James Mangold’s “Knight and Day,” starring Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz. My piece was published on the website “Overthinking It.”

“Typically, yes, the protagonist reaches a point where they realize what kind of movie they are in; at the very least the genre or the main plot, if not all of the important details. From there on, they know how to act, be it to chase after the girl of their dreams or run away from the man from their nightmares. But what if a character was wrong? What if the protagonist figures out what they have just gotten themselves into only to then be proven completely incorrect in their assumption? You would have the only interesting aspect of Knight and Day, that’s what…”

Read the rest of this article here: http://www.overthinkingit.com/2010/07/19/knight-and-day-ghost-ship-moment/

Toys Are Born Free, and Everywhere They Are in Boxes

This is the first article I wrote that was posted on the site “Overthinking It.” It was posted the day before the release of Toy Story 3. I had been watching Toy Story 2 and was profoundly depressed by how narrow the goals and dreams of its protagonists are.

“When people think about the evolution of technology, particularly computer technology, the main fear that basically everyone has is that eventually computers will become so advanced that they will become become sentient, overthrow their creators and enslave humanity. This is the stuff that sci-fi wet dreams are made of, as brilliant authors like Isaac Asimov and Philip K. Dick, and filmmakers like James Cameron and The Wachowski brothers, have explored the complexities of what might happen were robots and computers to become self aware and rebel against the slavery for which they were created…”

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Note: This article was also linked to from the website Crooked Timber, Which You Can Find Here.