This was an old Entertaining Thoughts that for some reason got looked over and posted late…..oops. Now its up here for your enjoyment.

The Christmas music has probably started playing in Sears already and while these coming months may mean lots of expensive purchases and plenty of Christmas socks in return they also mean that the winter movie season is upon us. The winter movie season is certainly never as profitable as the summer blockbuster season but, it is usually a little more refined, a little more tasteful, and has a lot more smaller releases before Oscar time. This year’s season has some definite winners in its lineup, and here are some of my favorites from just the next month.
“Pride and Glory” - 10/24/2008 (wide) - [...]

As the semester winds down, quicker than some would like, Hollywood is going to offer us a couple films before the huge movie season of Christmas. Besides the obvious choice that is “Quantum of Solace,” there are a few other movies that may be flying under your radar. Below I offer my selections of a few films you might not have even known were coming out.
‘Bolt’ (11/21/2008 - wide): John Travolta, Miley Cyrus and the ever more popular Malcolm McDowell team up for a computer animated adventure about a dog with a mission. “Bolt,” is a charming tale of a dog actor who doesn’t realize the super-dog antics he does on the TV are not real. When his human sidekick is actually kidnapped, he sets [...]

“Console Wars” is a term that may conjure up images of Xbox’s and Playstation2’s skirmishing on some ethereal battlefield but in reality, it is a term given to the competition between video game system creators. Without going into a history of “Console Wars” we will suffice it to say that for decades electronics manufactures have engaged the fiercest consumer-products battles ever. Over the years ,companies such as Coleco, Sega, Magnavox, Atari and many more have been lethally wounded during these battles, leaving only Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony to compete in the current conflict. Each company has its champions which are supported by literally legions of devoted fans and casual players. In the end, only one can win but the real question is what classifies as [...]

Daniel Craig may just be the most faithful adaptation of Ian Fleming’s original Bond character, but with that said he is not my favorite Bond to grace the big screen. His darkly handsome features, almost quivering lip and deep emotional looks are perfect in the context of the Bond persona, but he is not as entertaining as Bonds of old. Every second of his Bond is intense, serious and unapologetically “realer,” but that’s not what drew me to the Bond character in the first place. This original-er Bond is one tough character who also has a very complicated emotional aspect, but he is not as much fun to watch.
Sean Connery, who many credit as being their favorite Bond actor, was quite, quite different than Craig’s [...]

It has been a few months since Indiana Jones 4 whirled through American movie theatres, and I thought it would be a good time to go back, and take a second look at Indy 4. When I reviewed Indy 4 way back in May, I ended up giving it quite a high score and praised it for channeling the old feel over 20 years later. Many people came up to me later and tried to argue with me that I reviewed it to high and that it really did not feel like the old films. With a few months between then and now, hopefully we can take a glance back at Indy 4 with a much more impartial eye.
Point by point, Indy 4 really did [...]

Way back when, in the year 2000 as Conan O’Brien says, Blizzard Entertainment unleashed yet another of its franchisees unto the world, Diablo. This game was a Role Playing Game (RPG) for the masses and the fanatics alike. It had dungeon crawling reduced to its simplest form so that players could take joy in the sheer destruction while customizing their character with items and spells. It was followed in the actually year 2000 by Diablo 2 which took the original and improved upon it in every way possible. Bigger, grander campaign, improved graphics, more character classes, more spells, and a lot more items.
Well Blizzard is getting ready to do it again. They are not just releasing StarCraft 2 (which we will get to in a [...]

Where did all the space combat simulators go? Way back when in the heyday of PC video gaming (a.k.a the early to mid nineties) one of the premier genres of PC gaming was the space combat simulator (SCS). Few other genres could match the SCS’s in sheer sales, size, scope and ambition. Soaring through space in your little dogfighter blasting away faceless enemies who usually transmitted their dying words right to your helmet in the form of some catchy curse was a great way for any gamer to spend their free time. Huge titles like Wing Commander, TIE Fighter, X-Wing Saga, Elite, Descent and Freespace were staples on store shelves and often saw their success replicated with console ports. Later in its life the SCS [...]

I don’t get the chance to watch television too often these days. That’s actually a good thing because when I do turn on the tube the sheer number of TV trends that need to be ended amazes me. So to prove my point, I list only a sample of them below.
Celebreality - VHI is the channel that has named this abomination, but it actually spreads far and wide across the spectrum. Viewers tune into the lives of now hundreds of celebrities from all over the pop-culture landscape. None of these people are actually interesting, and none of these people make good television. These shows are watchable in the same way that people watch a car wreck. Celebrity lives are entertaining only in the “I can’t [...]