Empty Bookshelf Reviews

Author: Nate

  • The Morgan Freeman Presidential Saga Trilogy: Olympus Has Fallen/Deep Impact/Oblivion

    When Return of The Jedi came out in 1983, nobody expected to wait 16 years for another Star Wars movie to poorly detail what life was like a couple dozen years before the Second Death Star blew up. If the announcement of the prequels to these years-old films was a geek shot-heard-round-the-world, then what 2013 […]

  • The Muppets

    The Muppets have always been a big inspiration to me. I grew up watching reruns of The Muppet Show, the 9 episodes of The Jim Henson Hour that aired before it was cancelled, the movies, Muppet Babies, Fraggle Rock, Sesame Street and countless other productions. Muppet Christmas Carol is one of my favorite movies ever, […]

  • Drive

    How far can you take the idea of creating a nondescript character before you have one that is boring and unlikeable? That’s the argument that’s running through my head as I write about the new Ryan Gosling vehicle (literally), “Drive”. “Drive” is the story of a mechanic/Hollywood stunt driver/robbery wheelman, who operates under a strict […]

  • Kraft Jet-Puffed StackerMallows

    In the long-standing tradition of foodstuffs that have been created just so that someone can write “new” on the label, and people can have the illusion of convenience (but in most cases are just pure stupidity), comes Kraft’s new Jet-Puffed Stacker Mallows. When someone tries to create something new that is designed to have an […]

  • The LOST Finale as a Meta-Metaphor for the Death of a Series

    I wonder if the “Man of Science/Man of Faith” argument could be extrapolated to refer to the skeptics vs. those who had faith in the writers. “Lost” (pun intended) in the hubbub of last night’s “polar”-izing finale, buried beneath the mystical corks, and cliffhanger fights; airplane escapes and journeys into the afterlife together, is a […]

  • “Reimaginator” – Rock Sugar

    What happens when Metallica and Journey get put in a blender, with a little Madonna for consistency? “Rock Sugar” happens. You come across a lot of Mash-Ups on the internet. It seems like the cool, gimmicky musical viral video thing to do these days, and a lot of it is because the formula is so […]

  • Southland Tales

    Silent Bob or ZZ Top Member? You be the judge. Is it possible to make a movie that is at once pretentious, derivative, completely incomprehensible, insanely long, outrageous just for the sake of it, tonally off-balance, with tons of distractingly recognizeable actors, and somehow surprisingly engrossing? Honestly, Southland Tales lives up to its negative hype. […]

  • Half Inventing Stuff Part 3, or Other People Stealing Your Ideas Without Ever Having Met You or Knowing that They Stole Something Part 3

    The Bar-B-Fume bottle design and logo from an infomercial I did as a class project in 2002. Graphics designed by Rob Edwards. So back in 1998, I had an English oral presentation to do in which I’d be selling a made-up product. After racking my brain for hours, my thought process went as follows: “What […]

  • The Lost Posts – “Attending the June 3rd 2007 Phillies-Giants Game”

    Going back and finding posts I never finished, I saw that this one was completed, but never posted… maybe I just didn’t have a picture to go with it. He could probably have jumped over Danny DeVito. Allow me to list the numerous things that made this game completely awesome for me to have seen […]

  • Leaking a Fake Version of Your New Album on the Internet (with actual fake songs)

    Ben Folds leaked a fake version of his new album “Way to Normal” on the internet, with six songs he recorded in eight hours, and three versions of songs that are actually going to appear on the album. Four stars.