Empty Bookshelf Reviews

Category: Reviews of Reviews

  • The Empty Bookshelf Guide to the 2010 Oscars

    This won’t be a guide to all of the awards, but we’ll get through all of the important ones. I’m structuring this as an “Empty Bookshelf Guide” and selectively using the royal “we,” though I’ve not consulted with the Junior Staff for their opinions. The format will be listing the ten Best Picture nominees, and […]

  • 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 […]

  • 2010 Academy Awards

    Alec and Steve were the only friends left at “Oscar’s” birthday party after mom kicked Kratos out after “the incident.” Some quick thoughts opinions: The “interpretive” dancing to accompany the Best Music (Original Score) nominees was tacky and plain-old ridiculous. Being that the music was written for a movie, why not show either a) a […]

  • Nate’s Review of Cloverfield

    Before I get started, be sure to check out Nate’s review of Cloverfield. Make a point to check out the comments – they get to the crux of the argument and Ken Matthews (yes, that Ken Matthews) even weighs in. No, we don’t take celebrity lightly here at The Bookshelf. Nate, Nate, Nate. So many […]

  • Pitchfork Media’s Review of “Shine On” and “Get Born” by Jet

    My review of “Step One” by Steps. Wow, that was easy. I didn’t even have to sit through the CD! When you read a review, you expect certain things. You want to hear some insightful positives and negatives regarding the thing being reviewed. You don’t want to be talked down to. You hope to have […]

  • 13 Months of Empty Bookshelf Reviews

    Though this was meant to correspond with Nate’s review of the first 100 reviews, schedules and, uh, not-feeling-like-it-at-the-moment-because-it’s-a-bit-daunting-of-a-task-itis, has delayed this “One Year Anniversary” review and pushed it into 13/14 months, but that’s fine by me. WARNING: Intense self-congratulation ahead. Nate’s recap covered things in a time-based manner, in fact you could almost call it […]

  • Once Again Being One Up on the Mass Media Or The Critical Reception to Jackass: Number Two

    It’s well known that aside from some misinformed old-cootedness about video games, we hold Roger Ebert in pretty high esteem around these parts. His cancer-surgery-turned-surgical-complications has taken him out of the reviewing game since mid-summer, and though no announcements have been made, I’m guessing he won’t be back until “Oscar season” starts in mid-November. Regardless, […]

  • The Unfair Critical Treatment of Former Boy Band Members

    Let’s see if I can get out some reviews for once… I’m not being profound when I say that success is a great way to turn the less successful against you. In the burgeoning field of critical criticism, this fact is no more obvious than with music critics. Movie critics are relatively high profile (notably […]

  • Empty Bookshelf’s First 100 Reviews

    Oh, those kids. Always at it. You guys really shouldn’t’ve. So here we are at the first of what may be a few reviews of our first milestone, 100 reviews. Not only is this the first review of this milestone, but of what could be very many milestones. We here at the Bookshelf like the […]

  • The Critical To-Do over Lady in the Water

    The cast of the movie Miami Vice hard at work If you keep tabs on the movie world, you’re probably aware that right now, two sort of big deal stories are going on between critics and directors. The first one involves Joel Siegel making a big to-do and walking out on a screening of Clerks […]