Timewaster's Guide Archive

Thanks, Spriggan, I'm glad you appreciated the detail. I'd always prefer to know WHY someone chose particular films for their list. Actually, some of your comments in the past have inpsired me to try to be more specific in describing a film's attributes.

I do think our lists include a few more si-fi and fantasy films than most critics (you won't see "Serenity" on many top ten lists, which is a crying shame), but you're right, most of our choices are fairly consistent with what critics are choosing. While opinions vary, critics tend to think alike on many matters. While not "professional" critics, we tend to think like them (which is why few people will talk to us at parties).

Anyway, thanks. I'd be interested to see other people's picks, since ours are hardly definitive. Certainly our zealous Spielberg fandom shows through, and I'm sure some other poster have great insights into their own personal picks for what was, for me anway, a great movie year.

Dench only has one Oscar. And Huffman and Withserpoon have none. My prediction is Witherspoon, since "Walk the Line" has some momentum and Joaquin Phoenix isn't going to win (I think Phillip Seymour Hoffman or Heath Ledger will). but Theron will almost certainly be moninated. She's just not going to win.

Not happy with the Gloden Globe nominations, witha few exceptions like the surpsirse comeback of Rusell Crowe and Paul Giamatti for "Cinderella Man". But their Best Picture nominations (aside from "Good Night, and Good Luck" ) disappoint me.

Frankly, analyzing this from a religious perspective, it was nothing but anti-lionist propaganda. It's well known Andrew Adamson coems froma  fringe group of fundamentalist animators who reject "The Lion King", and blame the midgets and cows of today for the action of dwarves and minotaurs long ago. Furthermore, the graphic depiction of Aslan's death much too brutal, especially the over long, blood-soaked mane shaving sequence.

Seriously, loved the movie. Points of view differ, especially on adaptations of beloved source material. I respected Skar's respectfull disgareement with me over "Jarhead", and we have the same situation here. A second review is uneccessary. A review is an expression of one opinion, not the site's or it's readers. I know Skar, Fellsfroch and others often disagree with my reviews (I can almost guarantee my upcoming "Syriana" review will elicit some negative reaction), but don't post rebuttals. It's possible Patrick and I will elaborate on our thoughts regarding "Narnia" in our year-in-review articles, but it's diffilcut to say at this point.

It's important to remember that it's all relative. It's absurd to call it an abuse of the clock system that we simply liked some films better than another person did. Everyone of the films we rated 6 clocks avergae 4 stars (highest rating) among national film critics (with the possible exception of "Die Hard", which achieves that distinction because of it's influence over time).

We judge movies based on main criteria: Quality (or our personal assesment of such).

I agree that we will no longer be using the closk system, and ask that they be removed from the Christmas article. I'll stick to what I know and understand, which is the 1 to 4 star rating employed by most national films critics. For example, our 4.5 clock review of "The Legend of Zorro" simply would have worked much better as the 2.5 stars (fair) rating we would have given it using the conventional system. Six clocks is so broad that it's confusing and hard to figure out. It's like asking a teacher to add G though H as grades and try to figure out that system.

We're not trying to be overly defensive about this. People are free to disagree with, or even hate our opinions on these films. What frustrates us is that we feel we are being asked to violate our own integrity by submitting ratings which do not accurately reflect our opinion of a film. Hence, we're done with the clock system.

For the record, we are NOT anti-Tim Burton. We love some of his films, including the first "Batman" (not a great FILM, but a heck of a good popcorn movie). As Fellsfroch said, it's a matter of personal taste - there's room to disagree here - I thought we made that clear.

Looking forward to "Charlie and the Chocloate Factory" with an open mind. Butron and Depp created magic with "Edward Scissorhands" and "Ed Wood". But they also made "Sleepy Hollow".